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| Dennis |
Open Your Eyes
By M.D. Spenser
Open
Your Eyes is a lovely and inventive folk-pop album by an eight-piece British band
called Dennis -- 11 songs marked by gentle horns, rich instrumentation and delightful
vocal harmonies.
All the songs are originals, credited to the full band – and
fine songs they are. Whoever is crafting them understands that many of the best
songs are moods and moments rather than narratives; they ask questions rather
answer them, and they wonder rather than declaim.
The song Give Me Soul, for
example, has lyrics comprised of a mere 50 words, yet it evokes longing and
need. And the lyrics to Leaving You Alone – sung over a danceable rhythm
accented here and there by hand claps – are punctuated largely by question
marks: ‘Lately I’ve been asking questions/Maybe I should be leaving you alone?’
Many of the songs are beautifully orchestrated. One of them, though – Talk For
Hours – is a cappella but for hand claps and drums.
The song-writing, from the
opening track to the final note, exhibits experience and control: A couple of
the songs are less than two minutes long – and they are the more powerful for
it.
Most of these songs sound entirely new yet immediately familiar. They are
about desire, about doubt, about hope.
Hometown, the final number in the set, speaks
of being well-grounded. ‘I really love my hometown,’ the lyrics go, ‘I really
love the way we keep hanging around/I really love the way it makes me stay.’ The
song refers no doubt to someplace in County Durham, a good 270 miles north of
London, where the band is from.
For music-lovers
whose tastes encompass diversity, this album is a gem. I hope the band members
are all getting along because we need to hear more from Dennis. What a find.
