The Lord Dog Bird

Album review

The Lord Dog Bird is the name given to this solo project of Colin McCann, whose regular gig is guitarist with Wilderness. His glittering shards of guitar noise brighten that band's sound, but on this album his guitar sounds like it's been dunked in a bucket of grime. The aesthetic is strictly lo-fi and noisy throughout. Along with the fuzzy overloaded guitars, the other ingredients in the murk are fuzzy overloaded keyboards and McCann's high-pitched keening vocals. He's aiming for a warm and intimate sound, but the messy, often unpleasant tone of the instruments and the lack of melody and lyrical insight serve to push you away instead of drawing you in. No doubt the songs have great meaning for McCann and he certainly plays and sings with passion, but the fuzz and noise drown out the feeling. The songs like "Song for Woodthrush" and "March to the Mountain" that scale back the noise and stay relatively calm are the only times it feels like there is something tangible to hold on to, but those moments are fleeting and the album just seems to slide past in a stream of hiss and clatter. Comparing the Lord Dog Bird to other lo-fi solo acts like Bon Iver and Iron & Wine, you can see that what's missing here are songs that resonate, songs you might walk away humming to yourself. You can appreciate the emotion put into The Lord Dog Bird and feel the soul being poured out -- but without any variety in the album's sound or any songs that jump out and demand repeat spins, ultimately you're left with a less than satisfying listening experience.
© Tim Sendra /TiVo