REDUX '11: Holcombe Waller

Another of our one-per-day DC faves of 2011...more til the end of next week.

You know you're onto something special when words fail, when comparisons even to the most brilliant game changers of music in the past 40 years don't make sense, when you just want to give up searching for adequate verbiage and just simply listen... again... and again. We've been meaning to write about Holcombe Waller for a while now -- his album Into the Dark Unknown did, after all, come out in February. Maybe it just seemed a little too daunting of a task. Let's just say that this isn't an album for everyone -- but for those who sink deep below the surface into Waller's particular way with a song structure, who can bury themselves into his Dark-ness without distractions and email alerts or tweets for almost an hour will most likely be rewarded with an album that stands, bravely and impassioned, as one of the most powerful singular musical achievements of recent memory...

Waller, a performance artist as well as songwriter, has been described as a genius so many times by his peers, fans and fawning critics it almost renders the term as some kind of marketing catch phrase. But make no mistake, this is truly brilliant, mindbending, hair-raising stuff. Melodies aren't simply melodies here, Waller's reedy, soaring, pitch perfect tenor isn't just singing, and the lyrics move beyond poignant poetry. Everything melds together into something bigger than it might appear on first glance. Some songs swell like eerie campfire hymns rising above floating sparks. Others drift like dramatic odes written in the contemporary folk/pop language but transcendent in their own unique style. The fleeting, untethered melodies remind us of Joni Mitchell in a way, a hint of Jeff Buckley here and there, Damien Rice from a different angle. But through it all you're left with just one name: Holcombe Waller. And an album that doesn't really follow anything -- or need to. Sure the influences are there, but this is one of those artists who use the past as a touchstone for what's to come. Not to sound flip, but this one you either get or you don't. If not, that's OK. We're not passing judgement. But if you do, just get ready to make the commitment. Into the Dark Unknown isn't just staying over...it's moving in.

Holcombe Waller - "Risk of Change" (from Into the Dark Unknown)

Holcombe Waller - "Hardliners" (from Into the Dark Unknown)