GARCIA PEOPLES - Dodging Dues

It's impossible not to love Garcia Peoples, and just as hard to sum up in a few words the American band's latest album, "Dodging Dues".

Grateful Dead fans have plenty of reasons to crown them the champions of the contemporary scene: the jam-session spirit, paired with agile, non-repetitive songwriting, an enveloping psychedelia, and extreme care for sound in production, make the New Jersey band worthy of the name people of Garcia - obviously we're talking about Jerry Garcia.

The other point in the band's favor is their branching out into genres not exactly adjacent, like punk. Just listen to the harmonic and guitar-driven fury of "Fill Your Cup" and the progressive, lysergic, sinuous sonic expansions of "Here We Are", as well as the cathartic role of the flute in "Cassandra".

With Matt Sweeney at the production desk and an overall runtime just over thirty minutes, Garcia Peoples unleash all their instrumental skill while also strengthening the vocal front with a decisive step toward the intense choral quality of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Measuring up to such grace is no easy challenge, but the American band has spent years carving out a path that is, at the very least, distinctly their own, and "Dodging Dues" only confirms their gifts. This is especially true in the delightful guitar interplay of the ultra-elegant "Cold Dice", which hints at tasty live digressions on the theme.

The same fate likely awaits the Allman Brothers Band-style ballad "Tough Freaks", which more than others benefits from the musicians' vocal chemistry, and it's almost natural to think of these two tracks as part of a potential triptych that finds its fitting epilogue in the short guitar solo of "Stray Cats".

Framed by a light boogie-rock scuff ("False Company") and the already-mentioned "Fill Your Cup", Garcia Peoples' fifth album unfortunately remains trapped by jam-session dynamics. While one can appreciate the will to condense so much skill into short songs - only one track over eight minutes, the rest under four and a half - it's hard to find anything to pass down to posterity: there's no lyrical or harmonic flash of insight that truly leaves a mark, predictability keeps creeping in, accompanied by a touch of tedium. While there's nothing to complain about while listening to "Dodging Dues", there's also nothing that cries out for a miracle, or even just a small moment of pure ecstasy.

It's impossible not to love Garcia Peoples, and just as hard to recommend their latest album to anyone who isn't already a fan of the genre.

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28/02/2022