Doug Tuttle - Keeping Alive

 

I am a big admirer of what Doug Tuttle does. He writes and performs wonderfully atmospheric albums. His lazy vocal suits the material, laidback with the ability to stretch out if needed. He offers up great Pop Rock that would have been at home in both the 60s and the 70s. 

I suppose you might call his material Classic Rock, but that would be too simplistic. It is much more than that. Songs take you gently into a poppier direction, but it wasn't always such. When I first got into Tuttle, he was much more of a DIY Lo-Fi Psych Pop artist. 

But 2017's Peace Potato (IDHAS Review here) changed all that. The production went bigger and although the Psych Pop was still around, but there was more Jangle with more of a concentration om melody and harmony. 

2019's Dream Road headed even further into Guitar Pop and is a crackerjack of an album. So much so that it hit the I Don't Hear A Single Best Of Year. You can read that review here. So it was interesting to discover the developments four years on with this follow up.

There seems less of the Jangle Pop here, but it when it does appear, it is very welcoming. Something In The Sky is a great song and underlines the fact that Jangling doesn't necessarily need pace. Ratchet even sounds like something on a Ward White album.

There are also songs that you could imagine being recorded in a big 60s Studio setting. Parting Gifts is one such song, which is also a song that you can imagine Bernard Butler soloing on. Mutineers is another big 60s sounding affair, this time a little more ballad like and a cracking hypnotic keyboard riff.

For Tomorrow even heads into West Coast, almost Country, Rock. Enough Enough even puts one foot in the 80s and includes a great solo. The real stand out though is Planting Weeds which has a Traveling Wilburys' production feel, similar to a Petty solo, although the vocal is nearer Harrison. It all contains a great Psych Pop-ish Guitar solo that reminds you of past Tuttle Glories.

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can by the Vinyl Version here.

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