Regular Vodka readers will remember Dropkick from previous reviews here. One of the founding members of Dropkick, Andrew Taylor, recently released his second solo long-player, containing music created over the last 10 years and finally recorded and released. Somewhere To Be (September 2019), the title track of which is posted here, contains introspective Americana-tinged pop musings, for the most part, beautifully rendered, with folk stories included for good measure. 

The closest thing to rocking outcomes in the bridge for Growing Older Than You, a raucous fuzzed-out guitar fill affair, much like the follow-up track, More Of The Same.  For the most part, though, this is slow to a mid-tempo set of songs, and in some ways, that’s the problem. Taken out of context, each song on this collection can stand on its own merits. They check all the boxes for production quality, lyric line, melody construction, instrumentation, etc. As a collection, however, they tend to sound a little too much alike. 

There’s no denying how beautiful these tracks are. They are like the cover art for the long-player, created by graphic artist Andy Bertrand, each song feeling like that softness and beauty in that visual. Like all really good things, it’s worthy of your purchase and attention, but you may want to add it to a mix of dissimilar tracks so that you can get maximum appreciation.

You can find more information on Andrew Taylor and Dropkick from the band’s website, which includes information about Somewhere To Be as well as a notation about Dropkick’s upcoming 2020 long-player that is in the works. Pick up a beautiful collection of pop songs from Andrew Taylor now, by purchasing this collection!