After struggling to make a break in the music industry, David Kauffman and Eric Caboor came up with a bitter idea – put all their most inaccessible depressing songs onto one album in spite of the inevitable commercial failure. It of course went nowhere but they continued to make music, and this album was eventually rediscovered and reissued in 2015. If you know my taste or have followed my blog, you’ll know this sounds right up my alley. Instrumentally this is quite accessible, but the atmosphere set up by Kauffman and Caboor are bleak to say the least. They take turns singing the songs they wrote but occasionally join play and/or sing together. It’s mostly acoustic Folk Rock, some songs are incredibly sparse and are just the acoustic guitar and the singer.
The album opens up with David Kauffman first up to bat with Kiss Another Day Goodbye, and immediately struck me on first listen. His lonely voice is so powerful on this album, and lyrically he’s the much more blue of the two singers. To emphasize his loneliness there’s this brilliant echo that gives the song so much space and depth. He’s joined only by Caboor on a slide guitar, and the faded “goodbye” is such a nice touch. Eric Caboor comes in with Neighborhood Blues, and he introduces himself – the slightly more humorous of the two. He even addresses the listener by talking about writing a letter to “some lonesome loser”, calling himself that and anyone who would enjoy this music. Normally I don’t like this 4th wall breaking writing but I liked it, even if he was poking fun at me.
Life And Times On The Beach could be a Neil Young reference, but regardless this is probably the darkest track on this album – and that’s really saying something. It’s Kauffman’s story of his life, memories of his home and life that he abandoned to try and make it in the music industry. The desperation and ugliness of it all is just so crushing, and he relates what happened after his big move:
“I can’t quite remember
Just what happened after this
Something ’bout a future
And the chances that I missed
I took a cab to Malibu
And now I’m on the beach
And what I need to end it all
Is right… within my reach”
That song is echoed in the equally melancholy Tinsel Town, another cautionary tale from David Kauffman. His voice is just so perfectly suited to this type of music, and so is the electric acoustic guitar that he’s playing. One More Day (You’ll Fly Again) is just completely enchanting, and Kauffman and Caboor come together for a melancholy but ultimately uplifting song. I think neither of them could go out on a completely hopeless note, and it’s backed up with their actual musical careers- they continued to make music and persue their dreams. They told themselves and the listeners feeling like them that they’ll “fly again” one day. This is an absolutely fantastic album, but like you might’ve gathered, it’s a harrowing listen. I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone, only someone who finds comfort in knowing there’s someone else out there that feels that sting of failure like they do.
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