Customer Reviews

Ode to Sunshine

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Delta Spirit rocked my socks off when they opened for Matt Costa at the El Rey back in May. I like to think of them as a mash up between Bob Dylan and a grunge band. It's rootsy folk with a garage band edge. Take a listen to the soaring melody and the raucous rhythm of "Trashcan." Or the captivating melody and lyrics of "Strange Vine." And "People, Turn Around" is Dylan-esque with harmonicas and all. If you want to hear more, which I know you will, they released an EP that you can find on the internet (from which they transplanted "Streetwalker," which was not on the original release of Ode to Sunshine). It has a different sound than Ode to Sunshine, reminiscent of The Strokes. On KCRW's website, you can watch a live in studio performance. Matt Vasquez's voice is amazing. I hope this band sticks around for a long time.

This album is mind-boggling and should be winning awards! I saw Delta Spirit open for Matt Costa and expected a mediocre opening act. Instead, I was knocked off my feet right when they stepped onto stage. Their strong stage presence only adds to the fantastic music they create. From that night forward I honestly haven't taken their cd out of my player and they are definitely one of my top 5 favorite bands.

Not one song on this album misses its mark. Truly a band on its way to great things!

Energy is one thing Delta Spirit decidedly does not lack. From the opening campfire sing-a-long of "Tomorrow Goes Away" to the brisk bar band vibe of single "Trashcan" to singer Matthew Vasquez's unique, soulful howl, Delta Spirit is a band that cares about making impressively inspired music. Showing a fondness for American roots rock that wasn't apparent in the band members' previous noise punk work, Ode To Sunshine succeeds on Vasquez's unquestionable passion and the musicians' creative arrangements, and fails on those songs that don't play to those strengths.

"Trashcan," the first fully developed song on the album, is the sort of accomplishment that Delta Spirit spend the rest of the album trying to live up to. A lively rocker that propels itself on a ragtime piano melody and Vasquez's ragged voice, it wouldn't sound out of place blaring out of some desert saloon. The rhythm section is tight and the climactic choruses are what make rock great, all tinkly piano and a dirty guitar as Vasquez cathartically wails "my love is coming, I can barely hardly wait around." If you ever needed a more fitting definition of immediacy, you have one now.

Delta Spirit keeps the vigor up on following track "People C'mon," a track that relies on Vasquez's powerful vocals to support it even more so than "Trashcan", and he steps up to the plate admirably. The band shifts down a few gears on the slow strummer "House Built For Two," a song that succeeds on a beautiful piano melody and some of Vasquez's most heartfelt lyrics. You can practically picture a drunken, bearded piano man straight out of the Depression-era West belting this out to the equally drunk patrons.

After the following "Strange Vine," a solid mid-tempo rocker with a shuffling beat and some fine drum work, however, the second half of Sunshine tends to lessen up on the gas pedal. "People, Turn Around" is slow, country-ish anti-war ballad that still works based on its Dylanesque vibe, but "Parade" is a thumping rocker that never really picks up any major steam and never really rides away in an interesting direction, instead eating itself up in a standard instrumental freakout.

Vasquez's lyrics also become more and more preachy as the album continues, particularly with the sentimental "Children," and while "Bleeding Bells" is the kind of acoustic solo you would expect Vasquez to sing, it pales in comparison to the excitement and urgency of their more fleshed-out songs.

Luckily, Delta Spirit are the kind of band that has promise galore, as epitomized by the entire first half of Sunshine and the closing title track, a piano-stomping tune of musical optimism praising the good gospel of good ole American rock `n roll. In Delta Spirit's universe, melody and talented songwriting are their God and Jesus, and Vasquez and mates are their priests.

I come from Ireland, Ive been living in the States for 10 years. Im a bit snobby about the music I like. Basically I like UK and Irish bands, I feel the music has so much more depth in recent (20 years, apart from Pearl Jam and Nirvana) times than American music. So im on vacation in Ireland and I hear a song on the Radio, it immediately grabs me. Wanting to know who it is and also wanting to know if Shazam works abroad :) i click the listen button, it shoots back "People turn Around" by "Delta Spirit". Who? Never heard of them!, MUST be some UK band that Iam now so out of touch with that I would never hear cause I live in the States.....WRONG!...WRONG......WRONG!!!!!!
Turns out Delta Spirit are from California. So in my snobbery I cynically bought the album thinking thats probably the only decent song.........I stand here before you to say, I was a fool (in many ways)

How can I describe this album?....well in a few words....IT ENDS TOO SOON!
I cant remember an album that had so many instant YES moments. YES! thank good for great music moments!
This is an AMAZING Album that should be picked up straight away.

My prejudice is gone! AMAZING FROM BEGINNING TO END!

GET IT NOW!

You'll love this album whether you're by yourself or with a group. It's feel good, but it rocks, but it broods, but it makes you want to shake your body to the beat.

Delta Spirit sounds like one more example of what happens when hipster kids find out they need to add more alt-country to the rockin' mix. And for that, I love it, because it rocks something new.

I don't have comparisons for you, because I listen to all kinds of music. I bought this at the same time I picked up a couple of Miles Davis albums and the new Animal Collective album, which is my first of their work. Maybe Delta Spirit is something like Wilco, 10 years younger, after they'd been listing to Arcade Fire, the Eastern Conference Champions, and two Kings of Leon songs.

Just buy it.

I saw the Delta Spirit open up for the Cold War Kids at the Bowery Ballroom and i was instantly hooked. I bought Ode to Sunshine and was further blown away. A truely spectacular album. I've since seen them a few more times and they some how keep getting better. THIS IS A BAND ON THE VERGE OF BEING HUGE!!!! BUY THIS AND ENJOY!!! You will not be disappointed.

I saw them play at the Maxwell's and they were awesome! I bought this album and I listen to it on my car on the way to work pretty much everyday. I love this album and I'm going to buy their others ones...

I am a recently new convert to Delta Spirit having first got `History From Below' and was quietly impressed. This however has moved me a whole lot more. This is one of those albums that has a cohesiveness that means the whole ensemble fits together.

The band is a four piece from Long Beach California who The Times said play `rough and ready bar room pop and alt country'. They are renowned too for being multi instrumentalists - Kelly Winrich being the main man on this front. There are so many textures and sounds that you have to concentrate to get the full benefit.

On track 4 `House built for two', there is what sounds like milk or beer bottles being banged at off times and this is a lament so the added acoustics of a forlorn bar really works. There are balalaikas a plenty or mandolins, I can't figure but love them both and a great piano riff on `Strange Vine', which is one of the stand out tracks.

Mathew Vasquez has one of those gravely voices that is still clear and resonant and adds to the pure and raw emotion of the songs. Stand out tracks have to be `People turn around' and `Streetwalker'. This is one of the albums that I keep coming back to and it seems to grow on me more each time. Also recommended is the recent collaboration with `Deer Tick' and `Dawes' in the shape of `supergroup' - `Middle Brother'. Alt country has found a new guardian in this gifted and brilliant quartet.

Rarely do I discover a new artist that I instantly fall in love with but Delta Spirit is part of that select crowd. This album is beautifully composed from start to finish. I highly recommend it.

There's a reason for those many stars that reviewers give this band! Put simply, it's 'that' good! And I'll even fess up to when I first heard it or at least a small part of it and the next thing I knew I was tracking the words so I could purchase the whole song, "People, Turn Around" --- OK, if you can relate to this acronym, then you're with me where I first heard part of the tune: SAMCRO! You know, when the SOA [Sons of Anarchy] are literally at each other's throats at the dinner get-together and Gemma crashes that food plate and the song begins which was just perfect to that scene as the Club sort of freezes in place while the song plays and leads to the episode fade-out. Whoever made 'that' call and 'that' song for 'that' particular scene, absolutely nailed it!

I first ordered the MP3 "People, Turn Around" and then listened to some other tunes by the "Delta Spirit" band and purchased the CD audio album. And hey, the word is [as of October, 2010] that SOA has been renewed by Fox for a 4th season! I've already purchased in DVD format, and from Amazon, the SOA series seasons 1 and 2 and season 3 is currently in progress which I'll also order when it's available. It's not the first time that small snippet tune selections for various episodes of SOA has found me tracking the wordage snippets for purchase of the whole song and the performing band or artist.


Doc Tony
;-)