The press for a new or upcoming release usually gives the consumer an idea of what they can expect in that release. Previous work by Dave Sitek and Daniel Ledinsky features such names as Beyoncé & Jay-Z, Weezer, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Carly Rae Jepsen, Tove Lo, Refused, and Cee Lo Green. This in no way prepares us for what they have created as The Neverly Boys on their debut collaboration “The Dark Side of Everything”.
Dave is better known for his work with TV on the Radio while Daniel created the anthem Donald Trump Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack. So when the opening-track promotional advertisement concludes, we are treated to doses of warm swamp-rock, earthy, moody, quasi-R&B, and sounds of Tex, Don, and Charlie, Remo Drive / Kings of Leon, and Weezer here, mixed with Ween / Dean Ween Group / Beck and Chris Isaak‘s “Wicked Games” there, through twelve tracks of love, loss, lament, reunion, rejection, anger, grief, and fire (I reviewed this record on YouTube).
Burn Hollywood Burn is more Tex, Don, and Charlie than John Lydon but the same attitude accompanies images of Los Angeles, not just Hollywood, being set afire. The first single, Never Come Down, tries to forget memories of the now-dissolved friendship/partnership. Was he using the drugs to forget, or was it a Sandra Bulloch “28 Days”-type of party-hard relationship that’s now dissolved because she chose the author’s birthday party to hook up with the author’s friend?
Remo Drive meets Kings of Leon on Red Flag with a more up-beat tempo. Is he ruing the break up in Never Come Down? Without You tips a hat to Weezer‘s Sweater era, and Let Love In brings Remo Drive and Kings of Leon together again while still trying to reverse the break-up.
The bluesy swamp-rock returns on Misery and whilst the title points at the failure of the attempted reunion, lyrically it was meant to just burn out anyway, and the author accepts that now. My stand out is the bluegrass / country Mighty Pine that rekindles the good old days, all brought back by an old photograph. He wonders why it had to end, wanting instead to be the mighty pine that keeps standing regardless, telling her that any relationship she pursues now will be the same as theirs was.
The swamp-rocky Wheel of Fortune celebrates the eventual reunion and hopes for a brighter future together, but is there a future with that lyric, “You believe in me / You be leavin’ me …”? The opening stock vision of an atomic explosion, viewed from a safe distance, has Mushroom Cloud admitting that memories of her are the only thing that get him as high as the shrooms used to, but the upcoming apocalypse can be survived if they make babies together, or at least practise doing so!
Director’s Cut is more lament about how it could have been compared to how it is: “Who’s directing this, anyway?” has him asking, like Karen, to see the manager. The closer, Your Life Is Blooming, replaces the burning imagery of the collection with actual burning and reprises the opening Tex, Don, and Charlie style with the realisation that it really is over.
The Neverly Boys‘ “The Dark Side of Everything”: as far from what they have done before as any press could prepare you for! A great collection for Sunday brunch, an evening at the coffee shop, or recalling your own lament.