Dust of Days - Analog Mind Bender (2017)

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Written by Frank McClure, posted by blog admin

Analog Mind Bender, four years in the making, reaffirms the potential exhibited on the band’s first two releases 2012’s Thomas & Grace followed by the 2013 EP Ethers and Embers. The twelve song collection makes the case that Frank Lettieri Jr.’s songwriting has benefitted from a quantum leap forward that’s allowed the band to expand its sonic palette into previously unimaginable realms. This isn’t a band content to memorize a couple of successful formulas and then milk them for an indeterminate time. Instead, Dust of Days aims to leave behind lasting work that entertains while making enduring statements about the life behind the work and the times in which we live. The production gives it an impetus it might otherwise lack and gives each of the four players a platform from which their talents and contributions to the band’s music can be rightly appreciated. Analog Mind Bender is a powerful release all around.

The album begins on a high note thanks to the buoyant energy lifting “Analog Mind Bender” off the ground. It’s an effective title song for multiple reasons but one key factor in its effectiveness is how it gives listeners, in retrospect, a template for what they can expect from much of the album. There’s some delicious mischief in that as well because if you lock into this song’s lightly melodic push as indicative of the band’s work as a whole, you’re in for a surprise. That tweaking of expectations commences, really, with the next song. The title song doesn’t prepare you for the aggression and seething intensity of “Aurora” – few songs on Analog Mind Bender are nearly as abrasive and muscular. Lettieri’s swing between spoken vocals and straight singing further sets it apart from the first song. “Mustang” delivers yet another stylistic turn, this one much sharper than the one preceding it. This performance shows their talent for invoking atmospherics and Lettieri drives it all home with an achingly emotive vocal.

“My Dear” mines similar territory but has, if possible, even more emphasis on atmospherics than what we hear in the aforementioned tune. It certainly builds to stronger, far more outright crescendos than the sometimes diffuse “Mustang” and the guitar playing from Jim McGee and Mike Virok brings a lot to the final result. “Death Vibrations” is a hard-hitting rock song half masqueraded as a punk rock tune and Lettieri gives the fine lyrics a particularly punchy reading. Some of the guitar work in this song is quite tuneful while still retaining an aggressive, jagged edge. “Porcelain” takes the direction in both “Mustang” and “My Dear” and offers us Analog Mind Bender’s most dramatic and thoughtful song yet. The fact that Lettieri and his cohorts are able to invoke such feeling and color within a relatively brief space of time is nothing short of miraculous during this performance. “The Shore” and “Ghosts” end the album with more surprises. The first song is carried by piano, strings, and Lettieri’s voice manifesting yet another side for listeners. The intimacy and naked vulnerability of the song is astonishing considering some of the bluster preceding it. Analog Mind Bender’s final track, “Ghosts”, is easily the album’s most structurally experimental moment as the song is split into two very different halves that, nonetheless, possess themes and imagery that neatly dovetail into one another. The four year wait has been worth it. Dust of Days are continuing their near inevitable ascent to the upper echelon of modern rock acts with the release of this album  and we can rest assured there’s more to come.