{"id":27066,"date":"2024-02-19T05:30:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T10:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=27066"},"modified":"2024-02-19T16:14:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T21:14:35","slug":"album-review-eamon-ra-dunce-witch-snowman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/19\/album-review-eamon-ra-dunce-witch-snowman\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Eamon Ra \u2013 Dunce Witch Snowman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When we last checked in on the music of Eamon Ra, it was to review his 2020 album Meat Bones Chemicals Electricity<\/i><\/a>. Even though the album title makes me think of the notorious results of a certain evil figure\u2019s mental acuity test of that same year (\u201cPerson. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.\u201d), it\u2019s a fine record, one that \u2013 as I observed then \u2013 is in whatever esteemed category you\u2019d place Martin Newell, Wreckless Eric and Robyn Hitchcock.<\/p>\n

Here we are in 2024, and Ra has returned with Dunce Witch Snowman<\/i>. A tidy collection that clocks in at just over one half hour, it\u2019s filled with the bouncy, intelligent and idiosyncratic pop that he does so well. With a voice that sometimes recalls mid- to late-\u201960s Ray Davies at his most winsome, Ra crafts impossibly catchy tunes, adorns them with delightful, inventive and economical arrangements, and decorates them with lyrics that \u2013 while often inscrutable \u2013 are a delight.<\/p>\n

Ra\u2019s sonic palette is broad; he\u2019s equally at home with the delicate, classical instrumentation that characterizes the instrumental \u201cHappiest Day Gone Astray\u201d (folding in some backwards guitar) as he is with the stomping rock of the title track. The thunderous and muscular bass on \u201cDunce Witch Snowman\u201d may make you think of The Move, with some doomy Mellotron to boot. \u201cOn the Periphery\u201d feels like some weird melange of Martin Denny and early T. Rex, with more \u2018Tron.<\/p>\n

Sometimes \u2013 and surely by design \u2013 the songs tumble into one another, employing the same key and instrumentation. The net effect is to make Dunce Witch Snowman<\/i> play programmatically like a concept album (though I don\u2019t think it is). That said, especially thanks to its brief runtime, the album is best experienced start-to-finish, with a quick break to flip over the vinyl LP.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave You Seen Emma?\u201d would have fit nicely on The Pretty Things\u2019 underrated Parachute<\/i> LP; that\u2019s some of the highest praise I can give a tune. Completely free of gimmickry, Ra\u2019s latest album manages to have it both ways: he unashamedly makes full use of late \u201860s musical values and tropes, but the end result still somehow feels here-and-now. The snaky leads of \u201cShelter Skelter\u201d and the Kinks-y \u201cOn Holiday\u201d coexist seamlessly with the Donovan-esque \u201cButterflies and Bees.\u201d And the whole affair wraps up with the irresistible \u201cSee You Later,\u201d a farewell that will have to do until Ra\u2019s next release. I for one await it with great anticipation. Dunce Witch Snowman<\/i> is simply superb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we last checked in on the music of Eamon Ra, it was to review his 2020 album Meat Bones Chemicals Electricity. Even though the album title makes me think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,62,65,73],"tags":[4148],"class_list":["post-27066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-eamon-ra","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27066"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27128,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27066\/revisions\/27128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}