REVIEW: UniversalDice — Misfit Memoirs (LP)
The album Misfit Memoirs by UniversalDice feels less like a typical indie rock release and more like a philosophical roadmap laid over layers of guitar solos, conversational lyrics, and a kind of emotional rawness that indie rock fans can appreciate, but classic rock fans will instinctively understand.
URL: https://universaldice.com/
That might be the essence of UniversalDice — this band has no interest in fitting into a category, whether that’s classic rock, alternative, or indie. It’s as if Gerry Dantone, the mastermind behind most of the instrumentation, decided to strip away genre and expectation, and focus on what a song could communicate if left entirely to its own devices.
The album opens with “My Heart is in Your Hands,” a love song that lulls you in with its simplicity before building toward a powerful 3-guitar solo finale. Here, you can already sense Dantone’s reluctance to stay inside the usual boundaries of a love ballad. There’s a sweep and grandeur in this track that feels more classic than indie, but then again, labels seem pointless when a song builds like this one does. Ed Canova’s bass grounds the track, but it’s the emotional weight of Dantone’s composition that leaves a mark.
By the time we get to “Once Upon a Time,” the mood shifts. There’s a storytelling bent here — true stories, as the band makes sure to note — that doesn’t feel contrived. It’s as if you’re sitting across the table from Dantone, and he’s recounting memories that are at once specific to his life but universally relatable. In fact, that conversational lyricism becomes a recurring thread throughout Misfit Memoirs; in song after song, the listener feels pulled into a dialogue rather than an abstract exploration of life’s complications.
“Kiss Me” starts with a familiar premise — love found, love lost — but the execution is anything but predictable. The track’s piano lines (Vin Crici) and reverse guitar parts give the song a swirling, dream-like quality, evoking that moment when love slips away, not with a bang but a slow dissolve. It’s in this blend of instrumentation and lyricism that the band truly shines. Love is complicated, but UniversalDice doesn’t simplify it for easy consumption.
The album’s five-song arc begins with “I’m Not Me Anymore,” an existential reflection that seamlessly flows into “Curse,” a song about parents and children that doesn’t moralize but instead sits with the inherent tension. By the time we hit “I Hate You,” it becomes clear that Dantone’s exploration of relationships isn’t tidy. Lines like “‘cause you hate me” bite with an honesty that so many bands, shackled by a desire to sound edgy or rebellious, might avoid. This is raw humanity set to music, without the varnish of polish or trend.
Of course, UniversalDice isn’t content to stay in the land of emotional dissonance without some levity. “Delectable,” a McCartney-inspired song allegedly born from a dream, is deliciously whimsical, reminding us that Dantone and his bandmates don’t take themselves too seriously. And yet, it’s in the quieter moments like “Slip Away” and the album’s closer, “Forgot to Say,” that you sense the weight of this record. Life is slipping away, and UniversalDice wants to remind you not to waste it.
Misfit Memoirs isn’t trendy or dated, edgy or retro — it’s simply itself, an album that refuses to be categorized, content instead to dwell in the messy, beautiful contradictions of life, love, and loss. In that refusal to conform, UniversalDice achieves something rare: authenticity.
Colin Jordan
