Sarasota’s David Berry bills his self-released album as ‘a typical day in the life’, and judging from the sound here his average day might well be soundtracked by Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, the Beatles and the blues.
Berry masks his vocal limitations by layering on the harmonies, and his lead guitar work can at times be, at best, ‘impressionistic’. Yet for all that, there’s an umami charm to this work that had us clicking back to davidberrytunes.com for more listens. Those psych vocal harmonies work well, and his licks have an honest, modest integrity. There’s a hint of Crimsonesque Chapman Stick in the twisted three-chord-trick The Fourth Way, and acoustic guitar and Mellotron flutes waltz in time on the Barrett-y Trust. Continuity’s downhome 12-string rhythm guitars chime nicely, while the otherwise punky Disparation has an odd, find-the-one rhythm in the verses. Berry can shift from disturbing (the dryly ironic Happiness) to laconic (Contentment, the best thing on here), and his none-more Floydy Utopia closes a homespun confection made with a bare-knuckle artistic approach. It won’t appeal to all, but some will find it well worth a click or two.
