Dr R Michelson 2025
Touching the bare nerve of their environment, New York collective accesses intimacy in a hard-hitting, yet alluring, manner.
Awareness Or Illusion
Given the rate of Dr. Rich Michelson’s creative output, one might expect the quality of his ensemble’s work to make a rare slip; instead, the delicious rawness of his delivery seems to be only accumulating from release to release. But if the move from idealistic country rock of 2023’s "The Water Is High" to existential blues of 2024’s "Acceding To The Apocalypse" merely reflected the shift in societal mores, the eleven songs that form “Awareness Or Illusion” are much more personal, which is why, perhaps, the band’s line-up got slimmed down to a simple trio whose telepathy reigns supreme. It couldn’t be achieved any other way, just because the importance of the interplay between the leader’s multi-instrumental prowess and gruff voice, his wife Dee’s crystal-clear vocals and Ed Modzel’s deliberately primitive, almost primal drumming cannot be overestimated. However, there’s nothing so academic about the results of the little collective’s efforts.
All of this is obvious from the album’s beginning, as “Just Shut Up, Stop Talking To Me” renders what may feel like impudence as a tasty slice of Delta-flavored delicacy, blending infectious guitar shuffle with the Michelsons’ honeyed duetting, especially arresting on refrains, before “Something Has Changed” transforms Doc’s rough-edged passages into impressive six-string filigree and lets his better half spearhead the cut’s gloomily optimistic flow. Yet while the unhurried “There’s Only Us” offers a rustic tumble, and the harmonica-oiled “Too Much Bullshit To Normalize” issues swampy licks, “For Jeff” – that requires no lyrics – distills Richard’s performative method to emotionally charged, molten essentials, and “You Always Got Something To Say” rides a swaggering riff bolstered by booming bass notes. Still, it’s the platter’s title track that binds different elements of the combo’s approach into a haunting whole, which the throbbing “Easier To Be Blind” enhances with humorous warmth.
So even if MOTU’s next endeavor is to find the couple doing music on their own, the band’s heart and hearth will remain in the right place: no doubt about it.
****4/5
