Preacher's Sigh & Potion: Lost Album

After Matthew Dear switched from the finely tuned indie-crossover minimal techno of his early releases to the knotty avant-pop of 2007s Asa Breed, which ended with a few acoustic guitar-driven tracks, he began working on other songs that prominently featured looped guitars and other organic instruments. Ultimately, he de-emphasized guitars on 2010s ambitious, Bowie-esque Black City, which ended up being one of his most acclaimed albums. A decade later, he revisited the rootsy direction he didnt fully explore at the end of the 2000s, and released some of this material as Preachers Sigh & Potion: Lost Album. While Dear has been associated with Michigans electronic music scene his entire career, he was actually born and raised in Texas. His father played fingerpick-style guitar, and he exposed the young Dear to the music of country and folk singer/songwriters like Emmylou Harris and Townes Van Zandt. The songs incorporate twangy guitars, tambourines, and even splashes of honking harmonica, and Dears lyrics sometimes have a storylike narrative to them, as on opener Muscle Beach. Taking all of this into account, the tracks are still constructed with the ear of a techno producer rather than a country songwriter. With a few exceptions, such as the quiet piano breakdown during the strummy All Her Fits, most of the album sticks to repetitive, loop-based structures. Hikers Y is a stripped-down, hypnotic thumper with groggy lyrics about social anxiety, and Heart to Sing gradually piles on close-miked guitar loops and a multi-tracked chorus of sleepwalking Dears. Supper Times is a cool, refreshing diversion, with downtempo electro beats and a synth sequence that shimmers like a tranquil, pebble-filled stream. The immediately following Crash and Burn, on the other hand, is a garage rock-style rave-up with industrial-style vocal distortion, yet theres an eerie cloud of atmospheric synths covering everything, keeping it from being the ecstatic howl of joy it wouldve been if a rock & roll band were playing it. Preachers Sigh & Potion sounds a bit jarring at first, but it makes more sense considering Dears family background, and it does have a kind of rootsy, lived-in charm the more time one spends with it. Even if the songs dont always work, at least they feel like earnest personal expressions rather than forced, miscalculated who is this even for? hybrids. ~ Paul Simpson