Guitar world

Hooks ‘N’ You: Dave Dill, “Follow the Summer”

Pity the publicist who offers up an exaggerated sense of their artist’s sound.

I’ve been offering up some semblance of music criticism since I was a senior in high school (Great Bridge HS, class of ‘87, thank you very much), and believe me when I tell you that there’s nothing worse than getting a press release which trumpets an artist as sounding like one thing, only to find upon listening to said artist that, although you can kinda-sorta hear the comparisons that’ve been cited, you’re feeling like a grade-A sucker for falling for a bunch of hype.

Dave Dill’s publicist, however, wisely let other people do the heavy lifting for her, sending out an E-mail which consisted predominantly of a review of Dave’s latest album, Follow the Sun, by Jack Rabid, the man behind The Big Takeover…and what a review it was:

I seem to be getting a lot of solo guys recording alone this issue, but fortunately there’s talent involved. This is Cranston, RI native Dill’s fifth such LP, and a writer at Absolute Powerpop compared Dill to Brian Wilson, his backing Wondermints, and Jon Brion—three L.A. luminaries that popped into my head (maybe a little Emitt Rhodes post Merry-Go-Round, too). But there’s also tincey bits of the four horsemen, Beatles, Badfinger, Todd Rundgren, and Big Star—if they’d been recording cheery, feel-good, mellow soft-psych pop with Wilson circa 20/20, instead. There’s also three songs, interestingly enough, co-written with Derek Holt of ’70s Brits Climax Blues Band. Dill’s voice, though, reminds of Gerry Rafferty of Steelers’ Wheel and solo, only more harmonies-driven. Very pleasant little disc!

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