Darwin Deez - 10 Songs That Happened When You Left Me with My Stupid Heart

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 3 / 11 / 2018

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Review

’10 Songs That Happened When You Left Me with My Stupid Heart’ is the fourth album by New York-based singer-songwriter Darwin Deez. When he plays live Darwin Deez performs as a band, usually guitar/vocals, bass and drums all complemented by laptop samples/programmed parts, but the writing and recording is predominantly carried out by Darwin Deez himself. The sound is quite stripped back and based around synths, vocals, guitars, bass and electronic drums, although there is evidently more electric piano on this album which adds to the sound. ’10 Songs That Happened When You Left Me With My Stupid Heart’ has kept the same style and sound of his breakthrough self-titled album which was released in 2010. In fact all the wonderful things that made that album such a success and gained a following for Darwin Deez are still there. There’s a quirky edge to the sound, the lyrics and the delivery, and live the band are great fun due to their simplistic sing-along, good-time choruses and, of course, their incredible between song dance routines. They’re a fun band, and Darwin seems like a fun guy. To say the music and lyrics are ‘simplistic’ is, however, to sell the music short. ’10 Songs...’ feels like a continuation of all of Darwin Deez’s previous album, albeit a more reflective one. With songs like ‘Anna-Maria’ and ‘The World’s Best Kisser’, it still has that innocent, sunny charm. In talking about his approach to songwriting Darwin has said that his early experiences when initially getting into music as a teenager left him feeling slightly frustrated at how cryptic other sngwriters' lyrics and concepts tended to be, so rather than dressing things up there’s an upfront charm to his writing. That really is the beauty of the music. It’s the embodiment of living in the moment rather than taking a picture of it and thinking how best to talk about it later. Instead of writing overly complex or lazy lyrics dressed up as something else, Darwin weaves wonderful, fully explored metaphors and adds a storytelling element to the songs. With the perfectly spaced sound of the music, the lyrics stand at the forefront and are given a perfect platform via the electric drums and spares synth/electronics and the gorgeous, clear and bright-sounding guitar. There is also always an air of wit about the lyrics. Darwin is able to pull off sarcasm so wonderfully on songs like ‘Queen Of Spades’ and ‘Drive Around’ without ever sounding bitter or aggressive. If you were a fan of Darwin Deez before, then you will definitely love this album and it’s great to have him back.

Track Listing:-

1 The World's Best Kisser
2 Anna-Maria
3 Queen of Spades
4 Getaway
5 Say It First
6 Drive Around
7 Too Shy To Take A Shine
8 All My Friends
9 Someone New
10 Daddy Always

Band Links:-

http://darwindeez.com/
https://www.facebook.com/darwindeeez
https://twitter.com/darwindeez
https://www.youtube.com/user/darwindee
https://www.instagram.com/darwindeeznu

Label Links:-

http://www.luckynumbermusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/luckynumbermu
https://twitter.com/luckynumbermus
https://www.youtube.com/user/LuckyNumb
https://www.instagram.com/luckynumberm