A long, low tone. Only after 19 seconds does a seemingly simple guitar melody appear. Soon, it splits into several layers. Here and there, you catch other subtle embellishments. And yet, »Flowers for David« feels like a plain song. In that sense, it’s emblematic of The Animal, the latest album by Blue Lake, the project led by Copenhagen-based musician Jason Dungan. It can come across as Gebrauchsmusik – utility music.
That’s not a dig; I enjoyed letting the album play in the background while handling my more mindless work tasks. And yet, that’s not the record’s only dimension. On his Substack, Dungan writes about his late friend David, about memories of college and the turns life takes. He wanted to dedicate a song to David, “because my own feelings about him are difficult to put into words, but also because I remember him clearly listening to instrumental passages of music and closing his eyes, losing himself in the moment.”
With that in mind, I hear the track differently. It moves me; I think of my own friendships and losses. Seemingly simple, unpretentious arrangements often contain complex emotional worlds. The Animal is an album full of wistfulness and warmth. It unfolds like a friendship.
The Animal
