Drawn from Bees – Fear Not The Footsteps Of The Departed : Album Reviews

You know, I listened to this album all the way though, and I cannot, for the life of me, find the words to describe Drawn From Bees’ Fear Not The Footsteps Of The Departed (which from this moment on, for the sake of brevity, I will simply refer to as ‘Departed’). I can wax critical if I try hard enough, but there is no flash on inspiration that forces my fingers to the keys of my laptop. I struggle to decipher one song from the other, except that some are set to ‘rock’ and others to ‘alt-folk’. I’m drowning in beige.

Departed opens with single Run Away which, having already reviewed, I am bypassing [check out our Single Review here]. It’s a less-than-favorable move to put your main single right up front because, as a pessimist, or a realist in some eyes, one might expect it to all go down from there.

Always the Last has a dark, walking funk bass-line and a semi-interesting guitar sound that seems to have a problem that might require a nasal spray that they advertise on the radio. The East Wood Fox has pleasant folk touches, like a Josh Pyke B-side. Awful Mess is quite astute. No, you know, it’s okay. It’s just dull. Is dullness a greater sin than awfulness? Text in your responses, viewers!

My Sweet Devil slows it down but, by now, I am far from caring. Although frontman Dan James’ morose, characterless voice is, at this point, grating on me, I much prefer him in this alt-folk mode. This sounds like a sort of Drones vibe.

There is nothing inherently awful about this album. The guitar solos didn’t set my teeth on edge and James’ vocals aren’t out of tune or time. The production is good, and I toss my kudos to James for having mixed and recorded it himself. But, quel dommage, it is nothing spectacular.