Dawes – Stories Don’t End (2013)

On Stories Don’t End, Dawes’ highly-anticipated third album, the bulk of Goldsmith’s ruminations and recriminations have to do with matters of the heart, making it a kind of concept album about the distance between the ideals of love and the stark reality of modern relationships. By the time the gentle strains of “Just Beneath The Surface (Reprise)” fade out, it feels like this particular love affair has run its course simply because there is nothing left for the narrator to explore.
Such earnestness is what Dawes fans bank on, of course. It’s hard to deny the results when they swing for the cheap seats, as they do on sweeping, dramatic ballads like the title track and “Something In Common.” If some of the metaphors and similes are strained, if Goldsmith’s buried emotions sometimes come to the surface a bit clumsily, it’s all forgivable. After all, in an era when bands  bury their vocals in the mix and wear their nonchalance as a badge of honor, it’s refreshing to see a band whose worst musical sin is maybe trying a bit too hard to say just what they want to say.