I've been waiting for Amen Dunes fourth album Freedom to drop since I first heard its lead off single Miki Dora way back in January. Named after the renegade Hungarian surfer from that way of life's Golden Age, it's still one of my favourite songs of the year thus far.
Now its parent album is here too and it sounds to me like something of a slow burner. Meditative, brooding and intense, to some extent mood and rhythm driven and with a set of songs that certainly never following a formulaic verse / chorus formula. Listening to it feels like an experience of gradual sensory accumulation. The spell the songs cast build as the record wends on and by the end you feel you've experienced something that's impressive indeed.
Damon McMahon, the man behind the moniker, has a voice that's reminiscent of The Verve's Richard Ashcroft and in many ways the songs here pulse and burn like those on that band's golden moment, Urban Hymns. Their concerns are also apparently similar, mortality and how we measure its dark experiences of loss and grief and transcendence as we make our way down the long road.
Mika Dura certainly still stands out from the pack for me as Freedom's outstanding moment, (perhaps a full realisation of what McMahon is driving at). But the rest of the record also has a stately, driving energy and grace that made me feel I'll be returning soon for more. In the meantime, while my inner jury comes to its judgement, I'll post these songs here for you.
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