We have music from both sides of the pond this week. There’s folk from Richard Dawson and blackgaze from Deafheaven. The two acts don’t have much in common, but both vocalists are acquired tastes – Dawson’s warbling and George Clarke’s relentless screaming.
Richard Dawson
End of the Middle
2025, 7/10
Newcastle Upon Tyne’s errant folkie Richard Dawson is prolific, releasing a deluge of material as a solo artist, in collaborations like Hen Ogledd, and under the alter-ego Eyeballs. He’s also released 80 mini-albums with partner Sally Pilkington since the start of the COVID pandemic as Bulbils.
His rough-hewn guitar and freewheeling vocals are distinctive. Japan’s David Sylvian predicts Dawson “will be, if he’s not already, a national treasure.”
End of the Middle is Dawson’s first studio record since 2022’s The Ruby Cord. That was one of my favourites from its year, an ambitious work like the forty-minute opener ‘The Hermit’. In comparison, End of the Middle leans into the mundane, telling contemporary stories like ‘Boxing Day Sales’ and ‘Bullies’.
The whole thing’s concerned with these unhealthy cycles of violence or distrust, and these things that get passed down, generation to generation. The characters do have a lot of sadness but I hope each one, in every song, is having a moment where they are somehow breaking that cycle or at least starting to shake the spiral. So I don’t think it’s completely sad, no. Hopefully, it’s encouraging.
Musically, it’s often stripped down, centred on Dawson’s guitar, but feels mundane, lacking the fantastical spark of his previous work. The departure from the norm, the smooth, synth-based ‘More Than Real’, could have come from 1980s Roxy Music if it wasn’t for Dawson’s ragged vocals.
It makes the rest of End of the Middle sound pedestrian. It’s more interesting to hear Dawson trying something new than to hear paler versions of past triumphs. ‘Knot’ and ‘Bolt’ are strong songs in his usual vein, the latter recounting an incident when Dawson’s father narrowly avoided death from a lightning strike during a phone call – he hung up just before the lightning hit.
Take away ‘More Than Real’, and End of the Middle feels like a paler version of past Dawson triumphs,
Deafheaven
Lonely People With Power
2025, 7.5/10
San Francisco band Deafheaven play blackgaze,melding black-metal and shoe-gaze. Blackgaze already existed through the French band Alcest, but Deafheaven releases like 2013’s Sunbather helped popularise the sub-genre. Their fifth album, Infinite Granite, toned down the screaming, but it’s back for Lonely People.
The screaming takes Lonely People outside the zone of something I’d usually listen to, but it’s powerful. It’s not always possible to understand what George Clarke is screaming about, but apparently the album deals with the abuse of power.
I think it just speaks to the idea that these things are cyclical and that these people exist all the time. I agree that we are living in a moment where it feels like this—these characters, these people that we deal with in society have really hit an apex. But you know, it’s something you see throughout history. It’s something you see throughout American history especially, in the last 100, 200 years.
George Clarke, New Noise Magazine
The vocals calm down for the start of ‘Heathen’, before picking back up for the chorus. ‘Doberman’ and ‘Revelator’ are built around unstoppable guitar riffs, churning and propulsive. ‘Winona’ emphasises the shoegaze parts of the band’s sound, but builds to an undeniable crescendo.
I feel unqualified to review Deafheaven, since it’s out of my comfort zone, but Lonely People has some powerful moments.
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From these two albums, my preference is Richard Dawson. In fact, I also included “End of the Middle” in my weekly February 15, 2025 new music review. Dawson is really an incredibly prolific artist.
Like in your case, Deafheaven is outside my comfort zone. The music doesn’t bother me, but screaming vocals just aren’t my cup of tea. BTW, Deafhaven’s new album is titled “Lonely People With Power,” not “Lonely People With Problems.”
Oops – that’s a silly typo, thanks for letting me know.
I remember you covering Dawson. I loved his last couple of albums – he did a concept progressive rock album about plants recently.
You would think I would drift more to Richard Dawson but Deafheaven got my attention…no I would not binge on them…but the atmosphere of it I liked…something about that Dawson song just didn’t hit me…I will check some more out.
Dawson’s done lots of cool stuff – I liked the change-of-pace track this time.
I’ll check more out.