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A remarkable debut, this, from Thomas Dybdahl, former guitarist with white funksters Quadrophonics. Not that you would be able to trace that particular heritage on the grounds of his first full-length solo offering, on which Dybdahl poises himself somewhere Whiskeytown and Jeff Buckley, moving effortlessly and organically from the haunted beauty of From Grace to the tear-in-the-eye BBQ-Americana that is Love's Lost. The title track is a widescreen take on Elliott Smith's singer-songwriter folk and, like most other songs on here, rendered in a loose and sympathetic manner, ensuring all pretensions and high pathos are being kept safely under lock and key. Dybdahl thankfully includes last year's single release John Wayne on here, a stunning track that drags the listener to hell and back and leaves him battered, bruised and grinning. A few spots of weaker material - Life Here Is Gold, Postulate, Adelaide - does little serious damage to this amazing first album, and with songs like the irresistibly charming Tomorrow Stays The Same and the careful, considered Dreamweaver, Dybdahl only underlines the fact that he has served up one of the finest debuts of the year, and the perfect soundtrack to the long autumn evenings.

Stein Haukland
November 2002

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