Is Pop dead?

Maybe Elton John doesn’t think so:

“Stuffed in the back of some magazine, a side bar column about the queen / Spends his days faxing praise to everyone who makes him sing.”

So relates The Dent in their semi-autobiographical song “Fantastic” – the anchor and blueprint for their 4^th CD: Farewell.

The Dent is Pop. Pop as it was created; a perfect union of melody, vocals, lyrics, orchestration, and song craft that pulls you in and has you belting out some of the most purest pop songs to hit the ears since the early 70s and the much overlooked, under appreciated pop resurrection of the early 90s. Mitchell Linker (lead vocals), Jeff Norberg (guitar, vocals), and D. Raugh (bass, keyboards, & vocals), with Dennis Cotton (drums…sometimes) span 20+ years and present a perfect gem of pop implementation. The execution is as flawless and professional in regards of the writing (both music and lyrics), arranging, and recording, to the production, engineering, and final mastering, as that of any major label release.

Elton fax The Dent, Now!

In 1975 Elton John, along with his lyricist Bernie Taupin wrote a semi-autobiographical LP about the trials and tribulations of being songsmiths. Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy instantly propelled them to the top of the musical world. A world controlled by accessible upbeat driven, sing-a-long pop ballads with tight guitar hooks, breathtaking orchestral swells, and foot stomping, handclapping, feel good backbeats and rhythm sections. A world controlled by a select few musical superstars, of which Elton was the dominating and reigning King (Queen). And while Captain Fantastic took its place upon the musical throne as the Pop “Masterpiece” LP of the time, it also signaled the end of an era. Within the next 2 years Pop would die, or rather, be killed by Punk, Elton would continue to write and record, but never with the same overwhelming success, and artistic, pop fueled, community style radio would succumb to money driven corporate commercialization.

Pop resurrected.

Farewell is The Dent’s Captain Fantastic; a semi-autobiographical account of their 10-year history finds multiple songs chronicling their love/hate, I can’t live with/without you relationship with music. Starting with the opening track “Look Up,” The Dent presents a tragic love lost tale while establishing the disc in pure pop fashion. It isn’t until after the entire CD is digested that we realize this song is our authors pinning for what most people now consider irrelevant pop, not necessarily (but definitely metaphorically) a woman. Like Elton and Bernie before them, The Dent continues this theme throughout the record, and in the process show why the appeal of pop can be (and to them is) as tragically beautiful as that of a relationship.

“End Of The World,” “Second Home,” and “Without Fail” are 3 songs that personify this artistic approach. “End Of The World” is a beautifully driven ballad, of which the blend is much appreciated in a guilty pleasure sort of way: vocal harmonies recalling Bread as filtered through R.E.M and The La’s, while the music cuts an electric swathe worthy of admiration by such early 90s popsters as The Greenberry Woods, The Wondermints, and Fountains Of Wayne. “Second Home” brings more of the same with a Billy Joel style piano taking center stage, along with Mitchell’s alto vocals ascending to falsetto heights, and a damn fine violin string arrangement bringing to mind the classic work of Elton John’s orchestral arranger Paul Buckmaster. “Without Fail” has George Harrison vocal inflection matched to a Jim Croce type acoustic guitar arrangement in a song about a relationship that has stolen the heart, but keeps disappointing.

Keeping the sound moving along, “Never Found” and “Help The Dead” team up to tell the tales of trying to find the music that lives up to the critics praises (such as what you read here) and unearth the gems that are buried by their harshest words. Each with a harder electric edge than the previous tunes, they still push us along pops perimeter. Using vocal harmonies (“ah ah ah ahhhhhh’s”) and instrumental bridges reminiscent of The Ocean Blue, “Never Found” is a music geeks anthem. It’s a confession of wanting to be so into the music that the critics praise that the fan spends all his money and time searching for that Shangri La, only to be let down most of the time. (Side note: You gotta love a song in which the author has the audacity to admit he never “got” The Beach Boys Pet Sounds; “But I won’t soar or flail around / Could’ve been what I never found in Pet Sounds”).

Strategically placed a bit past the midpoint of this platter, the title track isn’t meant as a parting, “Farewell” is a long lost and forgotten statement that wishes well-being upon another. While it sounds like our narrators are chronicling their frustration as the reason behind their giving up the music business, we are taken along on a gallop of fast moving imagery that shows it’s all so damn great that it just pulls them back in. It’s all summed up with duel guitar leads, hooks and runs, dreamy eerily miked back vocals and a Beatles nod snuck in under the musical swell “You say Goodbye / I say Farewell” that you just feel and know that The Dent, while once had, no longer carry, the notion of calling it quits, they will continue on.

“Say It” confirms it; The Dent is not ready to concede anything to the cutthroat side of the music business. With “Hit Single” written all over it, “Say It” has all the hooks in the right places – lip synch along in the mirror and dig the dirty, grungy guitar slashing behind the squeaky clean vocals and pitch perfect harmonies, spilling the oft repeated tale of not wanting to break the band just because they haven’t achieved commercial success. It’s much more than commercial success that defines the art of music; “So when you hear my words, you hear why / ‘Cause in my words, you hear me try.” And that says it all. Elton, are you listening?

Personally, I feel that “Lost Alone,” while not the last song, closes the album (much in the way that “We All Fall In Love Sometimes,” while not the last song, closes Captain Fantastic) with an epic tale of someone not ready, someone who can’t let go. Of course the overlying pretense is that of a woman, but again, as so often found throughout this LP, the metaphor stands for the music and it is delivered in a slow build of musical and vocal intensity that brings to mind Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” (in a most appropriate nod). The build brings on an emotional intensity through fuzz guitar and falsetto vocals that just soar as the piano flails about until we’re drawn back in by a duel guitar solo and backing string (Violin, Cello) arrangement that would have had the crowds in the smoke filled arenas of the 70s on their feet, Bic lighters held a high, and screaming their heads off with much deserved adulation.

Finally, just as Captain Fantastic ends with an encore - the heart tugging, orchestral eulogy “Curtains,” Farewell’s encore “New York” finishes the album with as much (if not more) poignant insight. Living in Connecticut, I know of the significance and symbolism of New York. Being in the shadow of the Big Apple we have always felt the repercussions of everything involved in, with, and throughout New York City. The Dent, which hails from Fairfield, CT (a short car or train ride from the city), captures the pure essence of both pre and post 9-11 New York, along with the emotional impact that seared out across this land, nation, and world on that unforgettable day. Using orchestral arrangements again worthy of Paul Buckmaster, The Dent has taken that shock wave that hit us and molded a perfect homage that is as touchingly beautiful and passionate, as it is personal and pertinent, in its eulogistic ruminations of a friend that has always, and will always be there.

It’s been almost 30 years since Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy was the pinnacle of Pop music, and now The Dent resurrects and redefines it in all its glory to reclaim the throne. Hey Elton, no tirades, you know it’s time to pass the Tiara…

Farewell by The Dent
is available now for $9.98 +s/h*