Dan Michaelson and The Coastguards – Saltwater

Dan Michaelson's day job is as one of the voices and guitars in the Absentee collective - a rag tag, critically lauded bunch that haunt the seedier niches and byways of London. The Absentee sound is largely a buoyant thing, floated on an uprush of horns and poppers. But there is a melancholic element to them too, bred of bedsits and late-afternoon gloom - a sound that dances between the thrusting optimism. Michaelson, it is apparent from Saltwater, is the fount of this aspect of their sound.Saltwater then, might just be the inverse of the Absentee sound - there are moments of uplift (notably on 'Now I'm Coastguard' and 'Bust' where the horns of the guesting Rumble Strips sing out) but the dominant tone is one of sombre reflection, a kind of monochromatic introspection. Michaelson has said somewhere that these are the songs that were rejected by Absentee precisely because they didn't fit the band's outlook and you can understand why. These are songs that mix a quiet resignation with an almost obsessive questioning of love and its attendant cruelties. And like Stuart Staples' endless examinations of his finer feelings you wonder: can any relationship stand this kind of scrutiny?Staples isn't just an forerunner of lyrical subject matter though, as Michaelson's brandy-cracked - at times almost subsonic - baritone is pitched at the same knee shaking level. It is that rare tone occupied at times by Bill Callahan, David Berman - even Matt Berninger of The National. Against this kind of sparse instrumentation the tone can become wearing; and Michaelson is very reliant on a certain cadence and descending melodies. But what all these vocalists share is a nod towards lyrical genius, something that lends the belly-croak a gravity, an oracular quality. Michaelson has a lot to live up to...So what of the lyrics? Well this is certainly the 'examined life' with a tremendous amount of pressure being exerted on the most minute elements of relationships. It's as if, at times, Michaelson is squeezing the subject matter to such a degree that unusual images emanate, or as if these are condensed vignettes from the unconscious that lies between all our interactions. The other element to all this is that Michaelson seems to revel in the doomed romance. Ach, don't we all?With this in mind 'Ease On In' is like a manifesto: the unnamed object of the song is 'trouble from the start' and Michaelson entreats her to 'make this hard'. 'The Letter' is poignant and heartbreaking, documenting the dead time at the end of a relationship, Michaelson intoning that there is 'just a pillow where you used to sleep/and a place where you used to be with me' and later he finds 'my toes are searching for you in bed'. I caught this last lyric one grey morning and it made me catch my breath.And I think finally, this has been my problem with the album - despite the moments of pomp it's just too grey. Maybe with the sudden inrush of spring the record will make more sense, or at least will provide some contrast from what closes in around us. For now, I'll leave Saltwater to its croaking introspection and go for a walk. 64%Dan Michaelson and The Coastguards on MySpace