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STEVE
GUNN - DAYLIGHT DAYLIGHT
(CD/LP /Digital on
No Quarter)
It feels like it’s been ages since Steve Gunn
released an album of his songs. He’s been busy the
past few years with various projects and
collaborations. Earlier in 2025 he released the
ambient instrumental LP Music for Writers. And
although Daylight Daylight sees him return to his
more familiar singer-songwriter genre, the two
albums feel like they have a connection, both being
introspective and contemplative. It’s as if Music
for Writers was the sonic backdrop for the creative
process that gave birth to Daylight Daylight, and
maybe it was.
Gunn’s acoustic guitar
playing is nimble and atmospheric as ever. He teams
with frequent collaborator and producer James
Elkington, and with the arrangements and touches
Elkington adds to Gunn’s understated vocals and
guitar, the album has a warm, wintry sound and a
gorgeous production sheen akin to their earlier
collaborations. Steve sure has been in a mellow mood
lately. Although I can attest to the fact that both
onstage and in previous albums he can plug in and
rock, here and on Music for Writers he
chooses mindfulness. The album is quite a mood
piece, full of room to expand and breathe, a Sunday
morning tea-in-front-of-the-fireplace testament. It
seems like musically he’s been slowing and quieting
down more and more with time, but you’ll get no
complaints if this album is what results. He’s in no
mood to hurry on any of the seven tracks, each of
them moseying at their own chill pace.
My favorite track is the lead-off, “Nearly There.”
Thanks to some interesting chord changes and
Elkington’s string arrangements, the track has a
brooding, slow-burning tension, almost a disguised
sense of menace. In fact, few music artists brood
like Steve Gunn. He’s perfected Brood Rock.
“Nearly There” points to the end of a journey,
perhaps death. He sings “Already the sky is singin’/Already
the bells are ringin’/Already the story’s
written/Your name up there.”
“Morning on K Road” is about him running into an old
friend in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s another
distilled reflection of a moment in time; a human
connection rekindled in an unexpected way. The
music is pure Gunn: meandering, melodic, and
soft-spoken. I also love closer “The Walk.” It’s a
quaint, simple track about waking up before the dawn
and going for a quiet unhurried stroll, ambling by a
river, and sitting on a big rock. Pretty basic
stuff, huh? But it’s the way he tells it, his
fingers caressing the strings, his voice calm, and
the smooth, glassy arrangement behind him, that
makes everything about it just right. As the walk,
the song and the album gently come to an end, you
just sigh and mutter “Ahhhh.” That’s Steve Gunn,
that’s who he is.
(Mark Feingold) |
