Dawes Leave “Laurel” For Polished Pastures on ‘We’re All Gonna Die’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

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Dawes take a courageous step with their fifth album, essentially deferring to one-time member Blake Mills to produce them as they undergo personnel transition. The result is something of a mixed bag, albeit one that may bring them more listeners than would otherwise accrue if they remained wholly and completely tied to the contemporary Laurel Canyon sound they’re purveyed to this point.

In concept at least, We’re All Gonna Die is no more less an important album than any other for Dawes, except that it catches them at a point of  departure of long-time keyboardist Tay Strathairn replaced by Lee Pardini (guitarist Duane Betts had been touring with the group some months prior and is notably absent from these proceedings). A much more polished and pop-structured  sound comes to the fore with  “When the Tequila’s All Gone” and while the initial single from any album may or may not be fully representative of the rest of the recordings around it, there’s no mistaking that the collective feel of a band, inherent in the best of Dawes’ previous work, has dissipated more than a little here.

To be fair, the turnover in the keyboard spot might’ve led to unsettled sensation regardless of the approach to this project. But Betts, who might’ve cushioned the changeover with his stellar guitar work, is nowhere to be found among these ten tracks, too many of which, like “Less than Five Miles Away,” leave the overall impression of chief songwriter and vocalist sounding like he’s making a solo album accompanied by sidemen. Dawes may have reasonably given the benefit of doubt to Mills, a multi-instrumentalist and recording artist/performer in his own right (as well as an original member of this group), but even a track as undeniably catchy as  “One of Us”  reinforces the impression of anonymity, due to the electronic overlay dominating that cut in place of emphasis on acoustic and electric guitars.

Similarly errant execution in the studio also afflicted Dawes’ 2013 album Stories Don’t End, but here the misdirection comes at the expense of  guitars in the mix. For instance, Goldsmith’s customarily articulate fills and solos would lift “Roll With the Punches.” Meanwhile, the extra emphasis on harmony singing throughout We’re All Gonna Die, a virtue bolstered  by sit-ins from My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and the Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, doesn’t quite offset the brittle synthetic timbres so often used in place of fretboard instruments. The slick approach gives short shrift to  material such as “For No Good Reason,” so much so the quietly stalwart persona composer Goldsmith has created through the previous Dawes albums ends up camouflaged in the production.

The polish is undeniably attractive potentially so for music lovers new to Dawes,which is no doubt the point. Yet the group singing, star-studded as it is, often rings hollow while  the cosmetic allure of  “Picture of A Man” can’t hide how stiff the musicians sound as they play. In contrast to the robotic feel there, “Less than Five Miles Away” is a vivid song arranged and played in a suitably evocative manner, rooted in the insistent drumming of  Taylor’s sibling Griffin as it locks in with the similarly prodding bass of Wylie Gelber.

On its own terms and as a freshened depiction of Dawes’ innate virtues, that’s the most successful cut on the album, followed in short order by the almost equally astute “Roll Tide.” Here Griffin Goldsmith turns the sports lingo on its head with his singing, its forlorn quality enhanced by the sound of strings (real or synthetic doesn’t matter here). He’s likewise emotive, albeit with a borderline nasty attitude, during “Quitter,” surrounded by biting instrumental accompaniment from the entire band, a striking instance where Blake Mills forged a powerful track properly from the material, rather than impose his ideas on a song.

“As if By Design” works well as modification of  Dawes’ folk-rock style because its arch piano combines with trumpet for a picturesque setting matching the verbal images in the lyrics. It is, perhaps, a knowing piece of self-commentary from the group itself that augers well for their future (on their own terms) and provides encouraging and effective final punctuation to We’re All Gonna Die.