Thomas Dybdahl – Thomas Dybdahl

There are few gigs that I’ve been to where I’ve witnessed such a rapturous, receptive audience than at a Thomas Dybdahl gig. When I saw him, it seemed people were genuinely excited to simply have him in the country, and when he started playing songs in the 50 capacity venue things shifted from excited to absolute wonderment.And what caused these scenes? Well, this collection of some of Thomas Dybdahl’s songs should go way to explain this. This is a best of, by any other name, a sort of ‘here’s what I’ve done so far’. Hopefully it doesn’t mark a turning point in Dybdahl’s career where he abandons his soft-jazz sound in favour of heavy metal or minimalism.The thing with Dybdahl’s work is that it’s constantly good ”“ there’s rarely a duff track on any of his albums, meaning the selection process for a best of was always going to be a tricky one. But it’s not a bad job, and this is a fair overview of Dybahl’s spectrum of work. One thing is apparent though ”“ he’s a soppy bugger, is Thomas. Many of his songs are about the woo-ing and courting of his now-wife. But even a bitter, freshly-dumped singleton like me can’t fail to find it just a little bit lovely. The key to Thomas Dybdahl’s sound is subtlety ”“ he won’t force you to sit up and pay attention, he won’t cram his consummate musicianship down your throat. But you’d be pretty silly to ignore it.From the lush soundscapes of ‘From Grace’ to the percussive sparseness of ‘Something Real’, there’s a constant warmth throughout the album. A combination of brushes on drums, shimmers of tambourines, gentle percussive shuffle and melodic guitar gives a clean, uncluttered sound making each instrument heard, but at the same time blend into the collective. ‘One Day You’ll Dance For Me, New York City’, the title track from his 2005 album, is a stand out, a yearning, aching ballad, from the smoky saxophone ballad to the fuzzy-head lyrics, and the push-and-pull tempo, this is sheer velvety gorgeousness.As a way into Thomas Dybdahl’s music, this is a nice starting point, but then again so is any one of his previous albums. And even better, just go and see him live.Thomas Dybdahl on MySpace