Rain, Water and Wine – David 9 Lunas

If you are one of those people who find the more recent musical outings of Sufjan Stevens after his so called “existential breakdown” and his meanderings down an altogether more experimental path a bit too much to handle, David 9 Lunas might be just what you are looking for. The title track of the album alone does enough to make you sit up and listen, a soulful, late night, jazz-folk reflection that has the feel of Jeff Buckley in both lyrical content and style. But namedropping is just poor journalism and this album certainly sells itself on it’s own merits taking in alt-country vibes (Scarecrow,) raw acoustic blues (Jitter Boy Blues) and even some straight out reggae (You Can Come Over.) The big selling point of the album is David’s voice, which is not only sweet and soulful as a default setting but also able to carry the range of styles found here and still makes them sound like a composite and unique collection.

Just to take the review full circle, maybe the difference between the aforementioned Stevens and David 9 Lunas is that whilst the former tries too hard to push generic boundaries, experiment with fusions that don’t quite convince and dress up both his music and himself in such a way as to detract from the fact, Lunas knows what works for him and is just content to be good at delivering the goods. And deliver he does.