Archive for the ‘Donovan Quinn and The 13th Month’ Category
Donovan Quinn and The 13th Month – Self Titled
Donovan Quinn is a musician out of San Francisco, California. He takes influences from Dylan, The Fall etc. I would say he has a folk sound to him (surprise?) and perhaps Americana.
I first would like to point out, sometimes I get an album too early before the actual release date. Sometimes I choose to respect these release dates, other times not so much. It all depends on the preference of the artist, in this case I got Donovan Quinn and The 13 month’s self titled disc almost 2 months early. You can call this ample time to review an album but it ended up on the shelf until this weekend as I’m a chronic procrastinator.
I did really enjoy listening to the tracks on Quinn’s myspace at one point but that magic was hard to rejuvenate two months down the road. I’ll try to do my best on a review, as I’m in the middle of a busy week.
The album starts off with October Bride which has a little country-style riff throughout with Quinn’s rough vocals. I do like Quinn’s vocals but not for a long period of time. It isn’t so much annoying but I guess I wish for more quality on his tracks, that it couldn’t hurt to be better in the vocal section.
My favorite song from the beginning is Sister Alchemy. I think I just enjoy the simplicity and it song doesn’t contrast with Quinn’s singing. The rest of the album is one of those “subtle” types – a word I may be throwing all too much, with the use of a piano and simplicity guitar work.
Nothing about this album is bad but at times I wish I could get more out of Quinn himself, he is effortless in his singing but it’s almost like he disappears in the background. Musically it isn’t strong per se, though it does have it flashes, like on Dark Motel where it seems to experiment for the first time, otherwise musically it refuses to stand out and also stay in the background.
The one problem of this album is after the 6 or 7th listen, my interest started to stagnate. It’s not that the album is bad, it just feels passable and I get a little weary by the 14th track.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
I may have made a mistake asking for a promo-release…but that’s how it is sometimes. I can’t like everything I request.
