The second album by Damien DeRose, aka acoustic act Peasant, is one for the summer. It’s overwhelmingly (or should that be underwhelmingly?) gentle, a collection of stripped-down folk Americana that bears resemblance to the recordings of groups like Fleet Foxes and Megafaun, albeit on a much more intimate scale. Recorded in attics and in bedrooms, ‘Shady Retreat’ would be unremarkable if not for Peasant’s tin whisper of a voice bringing to mind the dust of cabins and the homeliness of a romanticised rural America – it doesn’t take long for postcard images of kids on tire swings down by the ol’ swimming hole to flash through the mind. There’s Ma, frying up some catfish for the young ‘uns. Pa’s whittlin’ a new spoon on the porch, etc. etc. The liner notes credit, “an old stone house from the 18th century,” that survives in downtown Doylestown, Pennsylvania as a major inspiration – like an old stone building these songs already sound almost timeless in style, a mix of jaunty piano and folk acoustic guitar that contains echo and disrepair in equal measure.
Within seconds of pressing play, you’ll get “Thinking”’s refrain fluttering out of the speakers, at odds to the piano that accompanies it. It’s a somewhat lacklustre declaration that, “we just can’t go on without thinking/maybe we’re wrong/I’ve been thinking” – this is as close to a statement of intent for the album as there is. This isn’t anything like the angst of someone like Bon Iver, or even a Ryan Adams, as it’s just far too restrained. It’s the kind of regret that comes with, roughly, six months of introspection about and dissection of (maybe more, maybe less) a failed relationship – emotionally muted, and now only slightly bitter. Example lyrics: “Keep up your looks/Got you as far as they could,” on “Pry”, or “Tell me that I look like I’m gone/when I’m around … Why you got to treat me this way?,” on perhaps the most upbeat song here, “Well Alright”. Peasant’s entire philosophy seems to be a shrug.
His delivery, though, is always, always kind. The lack of specifics, the reduction of the target of these songs to vague descriptives, keeps everything in the inoffensive realm of the folk ditty. His vocal style is laid back, withdrawn, intimate, willowy – the effect is as if he’s in the room down the hallway, just knocking out some tunes casually and carefully, but nothing ever stands out or intrudes upon the rest of life.
Therein lies the problem – whilst there are a few standout songs (“Well Alright”, “Tough”) on ‘Shady Retreat’, taken as a whole it’s more of an extended mood. It is the perfect soundtrack for, say, drifting downstream on a sweet, hazy summer afternoon (you can’t help but think that DeRose does exactly that whenever he gets the chance). These are the kinds of songs that pass the time around campfires, the kind that are a gentle strum in the background of a day spent relaxing in the shade of some oak. They are, to put it succinctly, lovely. However, that is part of their weakness, as ‘inoffensive’ can often be a synonym for ‘forgettable’, and there’s little here to justify heavy rotation. Whatever stream Peasant likes to float down, it’s not a particularly deep one – and that’s fine, for a while. He’s got to return to land sometime, and when he does I’ll be waiting to see what changes it brings.
Tags:
album, americana, folk, ian steadman, peasant, shady retreat
