The guitar, organ, bass combination at the start of this song is terrific, and DG Adams has a voice and tonal quality fit for the early seasons of Dawson’s Creek. Ambitious, mellowed with sadness, and aged in wisdom despite a strict set of rules to abide by.
“A screen is not a sky” sounds like hippy dippy Carlin fodder, yet, the sincerity in Adams’ borderline buzzed Kermit the Frog voice make it sound and feel new. “Screens” has a musical theatre element to it, maybe due to the war of warmth behind the background vocals, and it makes sense once you look into the origins of DG.
DG elaborates on his own creative beginnings, which began with his own family’s musical passions:
“I was taken to symphony concerts, by my mother, from an early age. So I learned about great music. My mother was an amateur singer, and her grandmother was an opera singer in England. So music was definitely in the blood. We had a great record collection at home, which included classical, orchestral albums plus Harry Belafonte, Paul Robeson and Pavarotti, and also some of the Celtic singers that my mother loved.
“For many years after that I followed the path of being an actor. But I never lost my passion for music. Around the year 2000 I met an actor/singer who became my best friend, and eventually encouraged me to follow a musical path: Torquil Campbell (of the now hugely successful band Stars).
I gave the song a listen about 4 times in a row when I first took notes for this review, and halted each time the organ settles into the mix. Beautiful stuff, especially once you remind yourself that this song took work to repurpose its boomered Gen X mentality. I’m not saying DG Adams is incorrect. In fact, far from it, I believe in the message and the man that wrote this song. He is kind and caring it seems as well.
While many Beatles fans often imitate, this guy takes the best elements of 3/4 of the group and repurposes an overstated piece of wisdom exceptionally well. “Go outside” is sung with the electricity of a blinking streetlight, with in and out, up and down, the universe is pure maaan viscosity. You really should give it a listen. After all, the four minutes fly by as quickly a your latest doom scroll on Instagram. Why don’t you unplug yourself and listen to good music like a real human being, you paranoid android?
DG Adams has now released 4 albums, 1 EP and 5 stand-alone singles. It seems he made the right choice by following his creative impulse… and you should follow mine and check his music out.
