There seems a particular penchant for good pop oriented rock, soul, anything, in the US Midwest. Think Rockford Illinois’ Cheap Trick, or any of the artists that appeared on the now sadly missing “Parasol Records” out of Champagne, Illinois. I constantly point out that good, quality pop that will cash the ear of almost any listener is one of the hardest things to achieve in music, and quite a number of Midwestern artists realized that and came out with some great sounds.
Dock Robinson come out of Columbus, Ohio. I say come, since it is actually a duo, comprised of one Nick D’Andrea and Jon Elliott, and they have arrived with yet another great Midwestern pop/rock/soul album in /Deep End/.
It seems that these two guys, in some ways comparable to the amazing brotherly duo, “Lemon Twigs”, not only have an extensive pop record collection but like any skillful musical alchemists, they know how to mix those elements together and come with some, listenable and thoroughly enjoyable music.
Harmonies (try those on the title track), chiming guitars, horns, are all there and all used with good measure. But unlike Lemon Twigs and their quirky tempo changes and songs within songs, Doc Robinson add a healthy dose of old-fashioned soul to their pop mix, and it works a charm for songs like “Borderline” or “Summer Moon” (quite an indicator of the music contained within).
But if you expected some inconsequential word babble of lyrics just to go along, you’d be mistaken, since these two guys obviously decided to try to make their songs as complete as possible:
“I put my heart out / right on my sleeve. / I’ll be the ocean, you’ll be the breeze. / All of your armor, all of my shame / Everything passes, fuck what they say. / No one is perfect, nothing is free. / I’ll be the branches, you’ll be the leaves, / Marie.” (“Marie”).
Judging by what they’ve managed on /Deep End/, Doc Robinson just might come up with even better goods when we hear from them again.
