Unadorned domesticity is the order or the day for Donald Beaman’s fifth album.
It was partly written during the final months of the singer’s decade-long stay in New York City prior to his move to Northern California.
Keyboards, accordion, and backing vocals have been added but the core aesthetic lies in the original guitar tracks recorded in Beaman's living room. Your Dreaming Eyes has the fullest arrangement but retains the intimacy of the home environment.
The opener sets the tone. Glass Bottom Boat, the earliest song on the album, finds the singer floating in a dreamy meditative state “moving slow, back and forth….. under pure sunlight.”
Sunlight also shines on Paper Screen where thoughts are in harmony with the gentle plays of light. A similarly self-reflective mood permeates the title track.
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Old Universe features bass parts by producer Kirt Lind and comes across like a slightly jollier version of a Leonard Cohen ballad. Valley Floor was composed during the inertia of early pandemic isolation.
The ghostly sparseness of Usual Phantom and the shadow play drift of Bamboo bring the 10-track album to a subdued close.
The fragility of the songs means that a strong breeze could carry them away but they capture the sense of time passing slowly with a quiet grace.
Listen to the album on Bandcamp
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