With the exception of Brother's Blood (which I'll come to another time), every Kevin Devine album has been a grower. I'm not sure what it is about his music that takes me a few listens to get into, but I'm always glad I pushed onwards with it.
Bulldozer and Bubblegum came out at the same time, which makes for a lot of new music to get into. Bulldozer is the solo record and Bubblegum is with The Goddamn Band, which in theory should leave the two as very different records, but there is a backing band on most songs here; it makes for a much fuller sounding "solo" record than you'd expect. On top of that, the opener Now: Navigate! rocks harder than some of the songs on Bubblegum. All in all, the distinction between the two albums is less obvious to the listener than it seems on paper. I have memories of listening to Bulldozer first, thinking the solo album would be more akin to the times I'd seen Kevin Devine (actually) solo, but then wondering if I'd misremembered which was which and played the full-band record instead.
My expectations aside, Bulldozer is a great record. The sounds vary dramatically across the ten songs; Now: Navigate!, Little Bulldozer, You Brushed Her Breath Aside and Matter of Time all hit up very different styles but all work as Kevin Devine songs. It also manages to feel cohesive as an album despite that. One song, She Can See Me, made it onto both albums, but I think I prefer this version.
I ordered these records as soon as they came out - the offer of glittered vinyl was too good to refuse. Possibly as a side effect of this, the gaps between songs and run-off grooves have a lot of surface noise. The fact that glittered vinyl is more style over substance shouldn't be a surprise, but it definitely does look good.
Format: 12", picture sleeve, insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £13.50 new
Bought: Big Scary Monsters website
When: 23/10/13
Colour: Purple / glitter
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
