Switch it over to cruise control as there's no need to consider speed anymore. The rhythm and tempo are out of your hands. All you can do is grip the wheel, white-knuckled at times, and steer through the melodic genius that is Rose Pink Cadillac, the new album from Dope Lemon.
The album begins with a self-titled love song directed towards any heart not already full to the brim of appreciation for life's intricate beauty.
There is a lesson with no answer in the song. A message teaching you that it's alright not to understand love, to be able to know that its purity is true enough to embrace it wholeheartedly.
Angus Stone is Dope Lemon. An Australian slacker with a purpose. A beatnik of the unadulterated carefree attitude passed down from the hippies after they lost their war. But failure is not an option when your entire sound breaths like a wind of change showing the way to those lost in life's confusion.
The album's direction winds its way uphill with a road trip of sorts. Not a planned destination, instead of a journey away from everything holding you back.
The album explains that once in a blue moon feeling, that rare need to hit the road, not out of some flight over fight weakness, but sheer bravery.
This album is a different escape. A long shot, thrown to the horizon, wanting nothing more than to be caught.
"StingRay Pete" is the album's switch to low gear, keeping you steady through unpredictable terrain.
The song slides back and forth, rocking you like a comforting mother does her baby.
A gentle pause that forces a special kind of introspection, one so honest in its self-description that it hurts to think about never truly understanding your realizations beforehand.
There is a smooth transition into the next song "Sailor's Delight," a fever dream so intense you have no choice but to relax as its waves crash over you. No need to hold your breath, reality as you knew it has shifted its mood and eaten its own head in the confusion.
The second half of the album is the point in your drive where you need to make a decision. Do you get off at the next exit and return back from where you came, or continue exceeding limits, covering ground so new that walking on it would be too much of a risk.
Realizing that there's no turning back, Dope Lemon makes the call for you and presses firmly on the gas peddle.
The album is without genre. A misfit pissed drunk on idealism and ready to take on the world.
I highly recommend taking the ride.
Follow Dope Lemon
