Review Summary: Same as I ever was, same as I ever will be
On those cooking competition shows I’m frequently subjected to (blame my wife), the phrase “elevated comfort food” gets thrown around with abandon - the idea being that the chef is adding refinement and polish to various “average person” staple dishes. For a certain type of listener, Boston-based Darlingside are essentially a musical version of the “comfort food” concept, regardless of whether they’re truly “elevated” or not. Their no-frills indie folk sound, with unpretentious lyrics filled with natural imagery and pearls of simple wisdom, built around throwback melodies suited to the likes of Simon & Garfunkel or the Eagles at their most stripped-back and morose, just hits the spot. Much like 2020’s
Fish Pond Fish, the band’s latest is a warm blanket album, instantly cozy and comforting without requiring much effort to extract its riches. Taken as a whole,
Everything is Alive is probably a marginal step up for the group, with a number of standout songs, like the melancholy “Lose the Keys”, the catchy “All the Lights in the City”, and the profound closer “At the Breaking of the Day”. In the end, though, this is an album not looking to make converts, as you basically already know whether you’ll enjoy the record or not based on your instinctive gut reaction to the phrase “mellow revivalist indie folk”. If that style sounds promising, though,
Everything is Alive is a tasty treat, feeling like a snug armchair by a roaring fire in your childhood home on a blustery winter’s night. Sometimes I don’t need the finest caviar, I’ll stick with another helping of those mashed potatoes.
