David Vandervelde's second album,
Waiting for the Sunrise, takes a drastic turn away from the lo-fidelity, high-energy romp of his debut and steers a course for the middle of the classic rock road.
Vandervelde has gone from presenting himself as a
T. Rexy troubadour to a beardy, laid-back rocker who happily channels
Neil Young at every opportunity. True, there are still some sonic oddities and tricks sprinkled across the album, but for the most part any track from
Waiting for the Sunrise could be played back to back with any track by
the Wallflowers or
Band of Horses and they would sound perfectly in tune. Instead of wired and energetic tunes and elfin vocals, the scene is laid-back and
Stonesy, and rather than drenching the songs in a cavernous echo that would turn everything into a poor man's
Spector Wall of Sound, there are smooth arrangements with Hammond organs and vocal harmonies that would make
CS&N nod in agreement. There are plenty of pleasant tunes and you have to credit
Vandervelde for borrowing
Neil's guitar tone and style rather than his vocal tics, like most of
Young's acolytes are prone to do. And on "Cryin' Like the Rain," the vocals are pleasurably high-pitched while the guitars have some buzz and solid-state bite as opposed to their usual state of woody richness. Listening back to
The Moonstation House Band, you can hear the seeds of
Vandervelde's transformation into a classic rocker. There were pianos, ballads, and strings, and a strong sense that he was a rock & roll traditionalist below the iffy fidelity. ~ Tim Sendra