Be – You (2016)

He doesn’t want to save the world, but he can make it sound a little sweeter.

I didn’t know much about David Hawkins before writing this, but I knew we spoke a similar language when I saw the cover of his band Be’s second album You. It features a black and white photograph of a large dog or bear comforting a bored woman on a bed. It makes no sense at all, yet completely does, and sets the expectations and tone for the record in a novel way. It harkens back to the early days of indie/grunge in the 90’s when you would see something interesting on an album cover and give it a listen based on that. My favourite example of that being my discovery of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel (Google it if you don’t know it. Great cover, great listen.)

American artist David Hawkins is the leader of Be and leader of the band Hawk. Hawkins recorded much of You at his rural Michigan hideaway (a barn that he converted to a recording studio on 14 wooded acres), as well as at studios in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. There is a fair number of impressive musical personnel working with David on the record, including Ken Stringfellow (a constant touring presence with R.E.M in the 00’s ) and drummer Pete Thomas, who has worked in the past with Elvis Costello and Johnny Cash, and more recently with the Arctic Monkeys and Jake Bugg.

Hawkins has experienced his share of tragedy and isolation in his life thus far. He has been living on farmland away from the city where he grew up and has suffered the unexpected death of his girlfriend, which sent him into a depressive tailspin. He eventually came back to Chicago and started his band Hawk, channelling his emotions into what he creates. As a result, an optimistic melancholy prevails throughout this record. Its messages strive to be universal, talking about finding and keeping love, following your own path, and fighting for just causes when the world seems to be against you. These are themes that David knows only too well.

One could read into the cover being the ‘black dog’ of depression that Morrissey has mentioned in past interviews, maybe reading further in that the ‘black dog’ could be a stifling presence, or a supportive one. However, that may be just grasping at straws. This mix of emotion comes across in the vocal performances, which are expressive and nuanced when necessary. When he sings “I feel so down, I can’t get up” on ‘If You Try’ you don’t doubt it.

This is an artist who has hit everything on the spectrum and has it fresh enough in his memory to express it clearly. Complementing the vocal performances, the album goes through a mix of styles, instrumentation and tone, balancing the seriousness of ‘Save the World’ with the levity and folksiness of ‘Life Goes On’ throughout its running length.

In a sense, You is a record unafraid of revealing its influences. The strongest of which are REM and the Velvet Underground. There is definitely a healthy mix of the kings of indie jangle-pop’s poetic and political sound. But for the more discerning listener, there is also a nice mix of the pop overtones of the 1990’s and the more discordant elements of the Magnetic Fields among others, all contributing to creating a sound that is, at times, comforting and stark in equal measure. The Velvet influence runs strong especially on tracks like ‘I Love You’, where the crisp guitar strums echo the famous ‘heroin’. While tracks like ‘Come Back’ seem reminiscent of (the good parts of) late career REM.

You is a record in the middle; it seems to be in the middle of a turbulent period of the artist’s life. It seems to be in the middle of a wide range of influences, and in the middle of emotional tones. However, these are all blended to give a fascinating mix and a record that seems to place itself somewhere between the feelings of catharsis and joy on the emotional playlist.

You is released on April 8th. Check it out if you can -> pre-order here.