Late Slap

Dana Gavanskis crystalline voice and articulate delivery meshed well with the refined chamber folk and delicate, dreamy art pop textures of her first two albums, even as 2022s When It Comes grappled with personal health and public health challenges. On her third album, LATE SLAP, Gavanski deals even more candidly with lifes difficulties while adopting a punkier, new-wave-inflected sound for their expression. It turns out that her voice is also well-suited for this slightly more angular, synth-based approach designed by the singer/songwriter and previous producers James Howard (Rozi Plain, Alabaster DePlume) and Mike Lindsay (Tunng, LUMP). The album, which employs instruments like guitars, piano, and a rhythm section, makes use of a 1980s Yamaha DX7 synth specifically requested by Gavanski. Also dialed up a notch here is the playfulness always present on her releases, perhaps most conspicuously on "Ears Were Growing," a song that finds her "tired of feeling low" and "open to letting go." Her search for escape is expressed with syncopated guitar jangle, a scale-spanning vocal line, funky bass, and occasional washes of shimmery synths, among other light, synthesized timbres, like faux strings and horns. Gavanskis voice and discombobulation are always front and center, though, explicitly so on "How to Feel Uncomfortable," an understated, baritone sax-inflected, rhythmic rant that includes "Tired of your zombie glow" in regard to cellphones. The more reflective, plaintively delivered "Song for Rachel" still has a prickly, synthy sound, as she pays tribute to a childhood best friend who died. Throughout, she laments the passage of time, dreams versus reality, and other disappointing turns of events with phrases like, "I’m rocking like an old forgotten boat" ("Reiteration"), "Flagrantly out of touch" ("Singular Coincidence"), and "You left me this hole" ("Late Slap"), with the latter song also including a dramatic sigh. The album nonetheless maintains an uplifting, adventurous feel as Gavanski powers through it all with near-operatic vocal leaps, fun grooves, and sense of perspective that keeps everyone, including herself at times, in their place. ~ Marcy Donelson