Week 5: "One Last Century" by The Damnwells

Brooklyn bred indie rock group The Damnwells have been putting out albums since the turn of the century so I feel stupid that it has taken me so long to latch onto them....I fell in love after the first 30 seconds of One Last Century(OLC).

The Review:
Combining feelings and styling of Ryan Adams with a more "pop"ish tone, The Damnwells bring twelve tracks full of memorable melodies and deep set lyrical arrangements that will grasp the listeners ear and hold them through OLC's entirety. Themes of heartbreak, "What should have beens", and hope bring the raw emotion of Alex Dezen's songwriting through. OLC varies on and off of these and allows listeners to scratch the surface of Dezen's state of mind. Taking a step away from the emotional influences of OLC and moving to the instrumentation I must say this is one of the more enjoyable albums I have heard in a long time. I do a lot of pairing with my music and OLC is beyond perfect summer driving tunes, solely because of the style of writing and layering of instruments. A majority of the album is structured on a more chill, indie, acoustic feel with the acoustic and vox being the main focus of the song with open drumming behind but there are the few songs that can really rock.

Notable Songs:
First up in this is the 3rd track "Dandelion." This song is so simple but brings so much punch behind it. This was the frist song I heard of off OLC so that may have a bit of weight in why I love it above some of the other songs but I feel like this is one of the more versatile songs on the album, it can be applicable to many listeners.
The second falls into the category of one of those more rockin songs, and that is "55 Pictures." This is the song I most connected with out of the whole album for pretty much every reason stated thus far. It can rock, but at the same time it is very straightforward and can just be grooved to.
The last notable is "Closer Than We Are." The biggest thing that stands out to me in this song is how powerful and...simply beautiful the chorus is. Themes in this song are very heavy in the romantic area and it works for the song. Vocals are the most powerful aspect of this song, as stated before, especially in the chorus. The downfall of this song is that it just leaves you wanting more and I say that in a good way. Some songs fail because they just sound like a broken record and I think that is what this song could have used more of, simply because of how powerful the chorus is.

The Good: Solid album. Musically, it is very tight. Perfect for that summer driving.
The Bad: Might only being appealing at certain times.

.....The Best?! did i forget to mention that its free? All you have to do is just sign up for the mailing list...come on. you can do that for a free album can't you? that leads me to the last part...

Should You Get It: YES Free Download!!!

Future album: Their newest album comes out on the....15th? Be sure to get it if you liked OLC!
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Side note...I apologize if this weeks PMM seems poorly written, I let it creep up on me and didn't do much prep work. This will not happen in the future.