REVIEW: Darren Michael Boyd — Thoughts & Scares (LP)
Although the new album Thoughts & Scares, was not commissioned by filmmakers as a soundtrack piece, this brilliant portrait of accomplished musicianship and unending guitar worship feels like a movie for your ears. After a brief break from the spotlight, Darren Michael Boyd is crushing a fantastic set of new music here, and delivering what many are calling one of the smarter instrumental rock albums of the new year thus far.
WEBSITE: https://www.darrenboyd.com/
It takes a lot to summarize emotionality even when you’ve got every word in the dictionary at your disposal. Starting in songs like “Abusement Park” and “Toad Rage,” it quickly becomes clear just how little Boyd needs a vocalist to convey his investment in the music, as the overall aggression with which he attacks the tone of these arrangements is something to marvel at in its own right.
There are instances where the sonic parameters of a recording studio would seem to be a bit constraining on some of the tempos here — such as what we find in “Broken Glass and Disappointment” or even the tepid title cut that closes out the album on a striking note — but our leading man never gets pressed against a wall.
Truth be told, he sounds comfortable with the pressure he’s inviting into this mix, if not just a little more adept at managing it than the vast majority of his closest peers would with this same material. That kind of emotional depth in an artist who doesn’t have a singer to charge with the task of setting the mood with descriptive lyrics is a deeply refined skill. To put it as simply as I can, Darren Michael Boyd nails it here. Even without lyrics, Thoughts & Scares still feels like you’re following a story, with unique plot twists and characters that you grow fond of or don’t ever quite trust.
With a mix of vibrato, pointed guitar attacks, and the occasional surf-inspired forward swing, Darren Michael Boyd commands the stereo speakers as his own throughout Thoughts & Scares’s rollercoaster dips into elaborate grooving. I’m still new to Boyd’s work, but I’d be shocked if he isn’t teaching music somewhere. Someone of this caliber of expertise has extensive training in his background, but nowhere in Thoughts & Scares do I begin to feel like he is talking down to me from behind the glass. He’s presenting a musical story that is life and love, creating an atmosphere that is both inviting as it is sequestering us from the muted chaos of silence.
I recommend giving Thoughts & Scares a spin and seeing what journeys you’ll go on with Darren Michael Boyd, who is quickly becoming a new favorite of instrumental rock lovers coast to coast. And after seeing some of the commercial garbage that the mainstream is bringing forth this winter, it’s albums like this one that will be the saving grace of 2023, as I see it. There’s a lot of potential in his sound still to be exploited, but even with that said, you’re not going to find another tracklist like this one anytime soon.
Colin Jordan
