Dustbowl Revival - Is It You, Is It Me (Album Review)

Los Angeles-based six-piece Dustbowl Revival are fronted by vocalists Z. Lupetin and Liz Beebe and their expansive, genre-mashing new album Is It You, Is It Me follows their warmly received 2017 debut.  The lineup has slimmed with the departure of mandolin player Daniel Mark and bassist James Klopfleisch - though the former co-wrote several tracks here - but the reduction in personnel hasn’t impacted on the ambition and fearless kitchen-sinkery of a record that refuses stylistically to fit in.  If albums by artists as disparate as Jeff Finlin, Cake and Rusted Root rub shoulders uneasily in your record collection then Dustbowl Revival could be the missing link.

The delicate pizzicato of Connor Vance’s fiddle somehow finds space among the decidedly ska brass and keys of opener ‘Dreaming’.  It’s packed with fizz and bounce, offering an insight into the existential perils of being onstage; a subject into which Dustbowl Revival are more than qualified to delve as, since their formation in 2007, they have spent an inordinate amount of time honing their eclectic sound playing live. 

The flatulent trombone of Ulf Bjorlin is improbably pitched against the delicate chink of Beebe’s ukulele on the hit-single-in-waiting ‘Enemy’.  The switch from Lupetin to Beebe as vocalist may be unsettling but there’s plenty going on to distract and by this point I’m convinced the band is some kind of renegade carnival Jellyfish tribute act.  Even though it shouldn’t, somehow it all hangs together.

Once I’ve got over the unfortunate - and no doubt unintentional - whiff of Renee and Renata that plagues the verse of ‘Sonic Boom’ I can marvel at its contrasting chorus which is all hairy singalong-stomp-and-shout.  The track is further redeemed by Vance’s folky violin riff and is the first song on which Beebe and Lupetin’s vocals lead together in harmony.  And after all that bombast, the acoustic campfire vibe of ‘I Wake Up’ is most welcome, as is the ditsy, skiffley folk of the upbeat ‘Penelope’.

Dustbowl Revival by Shervin Lainez

The soulful sass of ‘Get Rid Of You’ artfully masks a song tackling the uneasy subject of America’s tragic but recurring high school shootings with the honesty, bewilderment and anger it deserves.  The track proves there’s more to Dustbowl Revival than quirk and jive, as does ‘Mirror’ that follows.  With more sublime fiddle at its core, the track has a hazy Darlingside-meets-Dylan edge befitting its yearnsome, roadtripping subject matter.  As the song stealthily swells, Bjorlin’s trombone and Matt Rubin’s light-touch trumpet are no less stirring, making it, for my money, the jewel in the record’s crown.

The handclaps of pop savvy ‘Ghost’ see Beebe coming across like a boozed-up reggae KT Tunstall and bandmates Rubin and Bjorlin are given a free New Orleans Noodle pass for the song’s parptastic conclusion.  The party vibe continues with ‘Nobody Knows’ and the bounciness of it all is by now in danger of becoming annoying.  Thankfully, it’s reined in with the more soul-searching ‘Runaway’ which has a spaghetti western edge to its otherwise straightforward Americana balladeering.  Its catalogue of travels and restlessness are nothing new of course but in the hands of Dustbowl Revival at least you get some frisson with your familiarity.

‘Just One Song’ is light and easy - a simple testament to the power of music - but I confess that by this point I’m wondering if it is just one song too many.  Beautiful instrumental ‘The Runaway Chorale’ leads into the record’s hypnotic closing number ‘Let It Go’, on which the band find that magic balance once again, with Lupetin and Beebe in harmony and the horns serving the unpredictable sonic landscape with admirable restraint. 

Had just a little more of that restraint been employed across the record as a whole, it would’ve been nothing short of a little modern classic.  As it stands, it is arguably a song or two too long.  Nonetheless, Is It You, Is It Me remains an effervescent and refreshing album for a new decade; a smart and infectious fusion of traditions and styles, with heart, pop nous and groove in spades.  I guarantee that this is a record like no other on your shelves.

Review by Rich Barnard