Somehow managing sing about his silver Nissan Titan, his dog, and fishing, and to stir up sounds that are both superbly orchestrated and raucously inebriated, this six foot six Texan has put together a ten track debut that effortlessly embraces stark melodies and the more unpretentious aspects of math rock. By advantageously perfecting these songs for years before the release of this CD, the resulting tracks are assuredly polished and true, stealthy in their complexity and confident in their delivery. Like any good rock band, Don can get in, get out, and move on (none of these tracks even hit the four minute mark), making their play without any of the obligatory bells and whistles. They don't need it. These songs are compressed, smart, and fun to get to know. Don's guitar sings, the sound ends up being expansive and rich, which can't help but add another layer to the vocals. Smoothly toggling between lovelorn bliss and consuming self-examination, the lyrics here could be tossed off as "emo" (the dreaded "e" word) but that's not giving the songs nearly enough credit. At the base of it, this is just intelligent, really strong rock music that can't help but appeal to a large audience. And that's not easy to come by these days.
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