Songs Of Sense and Colour $2.43

About Songs Of Sense and Colour

THE ALBUM
Songs of Sense and Colour is the first release from David Borins. Dave has built a loyal following through live appearances in Toronto and Montreal over the last couple of years, and this album captures a sense of the energy that he brings to the stage. Vacillating between the poetic and the ridiculous, the mournful and the raucous, the sincere and the sarcastic, Songs is an enthused showcase for this eclectic young artist.
I have been Dave’s friend since 1998, when we were both around fifteen years old, and have had the pleasure of witnessing the evolution of his musicality. In jazz choirs and coffee shops, I watched Dave hone his craft. American blues and roots music form the foundation of Dave’s oeuvre and like so many other Canadian artists, he has succeeded in creating beautiful examples in those genres.

Like a string of recent commercially and musically successful artists, Dave taps into what seems like something of constant: in every generation, people want to hear talented individuals perform beautiful songs that they wrote themselves. Even backed by a core group of young Toronto musicians, as he is on this release, Dave’s sound is stripped – not to bare bones, but enough to let his songs speak for themselves. When the beeps and clicks that are currently topping the charts lose their novelty, as did heavy feedback and pulsating disco beats before them, our musical taste will once again reward the performer who can play and sing their own music. For some of us, it never stopped doing so, and probably never will.

THE SONGS
This disc is something like a snapshot of Dave as a young performer: passionate, funny, infectious, earnest, disarming, flexible, and always lively. I hope that Songs of Sense and Colour is an early step in a long and rewarding career for Dave, and that all of his listeners will hear as much as I do in his songs.
I think that the first song that I heard on this album is Walk On By. In fact, I am pretty sure that I was present for the first public performance of five or six years ago at a local coffee shop. Am I so typical? works not only in the context of the song’s narrative, but also as a challenge to Dave’s listener, who has probably seen and heard lots of aspiring artists before, and is now forced to answer the question for his or herself. Sort of an anomaly on this album, the song has a relaxed Latin feel and its probably more jazz than rock. Its connection to the rest of the album, in my estimation, is its narrativity; like a couple of other songs on this album, it is a story song.
The most unusual of these story songs is Poison Tree, which takes the genre in a metaphysical direction. Dave adds a haunting chorus to William Blake’s poem about malice and spite. The chorus emphasizes a self-awareness and a subtle hint of self-loathing that is largely absent from the poem. The narrator is a dangerous man, who – like his poison tree – is tainted with a deadly ill-will.
Oh River is more conventional story song. Were it not for the reference to “recycled wood” in the song’s bridge, one could be forgiven for thinking it was in an altogether different time and place. It plays on the archetypal relationship as old as Cain and Abel and has a sound that seems to have grown up around a campfire, as Dave and I did. What I find most intriguing about this song is the possibility that the narrator is not quite as evil as he suggests. Instead, the altercation between him and his brother seems to be as much about his brother’s expectations of him, than anything that he actually did. His lusty motives are actually a back-formation from his brother’s assumption, and the evil chooses to blame himself, instead of tearing down the hypocritical ideal of virtue represented by his brother.
The unlisted track, 25 Minutes To Go, is another example of Dave’s interest in the story song. This one is adapted from a Shel Silverstein poem that was also performed by Johnny Cash. Dave’s blues background comes into play on this track, in his bare-bones playing and soulful vocals. The song builds to a fever pitch, as energy turns to frenzy and an all out explosion of emotion, as the narrator finally meets his end.
In spite of the dark themes of some of these songs, Dave’s music is peppered with humour and brimming with life. My Hit Song has an instantly familiar sound, and opens with its narrator’s open admission of musical thefts. The song’s chorus is catchy and cliché, as befits any hit song created under such dubious circumstances.
I Don’t Want To Hold You Tonight is premised on the protestations of a man too drunk to have any fun with his lover at the end of the night. Its jangly honky-tonking instrumentation seems the perfect fit for its tone and subject. It reminds me of Dr. Hook’s better tunes, and its humour and energy have helped build Dave’s reputation for truly lively live performances.
Some of the best received of all of Dave’s songs address the sentimental, or romantic. You Don’t Really Love Me is packed with energy and makes a great opener for the album. The song takes an irreverent look at the need to prove romantic love and concludes that real commitment trumps lobster meals and diamond rings anytime.
To Know You Are Loved has been a crowd favourite since it was first performed, in 2006. The call to use cell phones and Blackberries, which have increasingly become encumbrances to their owners, to contact loved ones is as touching a message as I have heard in some time. Dave figures the act of picking up a phone and letting people know that they are loved as a powerful assertion of unity and ease, in a time of war and turmoil.
Love is the subject of She’s Under My Wing, as well. The song’s central metaphor is that the love that the narrator feels gifts him with the power of flight. This liberating aspect of love, however, is tempered by the potential need for sacrifice to protect his beloved – the descent into Hell, the prospect of dying to save her heart from breaking, and the necessity to protect her somehow.
There is also a sense of the song’s love as a grand unrequited romance. What seems like the description of a perfect love, can also be heard as a song of intense longing. The lovers are separated by the narrator’s wanderings and as the song progresses, it seems as though the narrator is working furiously to broker a deal the object of his affections can live with. The narrator’s belief in anything other than a sentimental vision of love is questionable, as his protestations of a willingness to sacrifice all for love is under cut by his continuing wanderlust. It is as if the last thing the narrator is more enamoured with love itself, than with his beloved. Like a true romantic, he is also pointedly blind to this fact. His metaphors betray the truth of the matter, as she is figured as a propulsive force: the wind in his sails, and the impetus for flight (from her).
Taking the relationship between musician and muse as its jumping-off point, The Muse of Orpheus conflates creative inspiration and sexual arousal. The song’s sexual energy is connected to a romantic love that seems to transcend the practical aspects of the muse’s role vis-à-vis the musician. At its heart, though, the narrator’s invocation of his muse is about sexuality and creativity. It rather romantically maps out the tactics that musicians and artists have employed to enter into romantic and sexual affairs with fascinating partners. In other words, despite its basis in Classical literature, this song can also be thought of as being about picking up chicks.
Erotic energy also permeates Late Night Hero, which I believe to be Dave’s strongest song to date. The understated arrangement and Dave’s masterful vocal performance lend an intimacy and power to this song that is quite remarkable. The song may be about what are commonly referred to as booty calls, but the song’s sentiment is far from vulgar. The narrator equates his late night visits with a rescue from real peril. He entreats his listener not to take his presence lightly, and those entreaties are well taken. Anyone who has known them, knows that the emotional and physical effects of loneliness can be a torture in themselves. The early repetition of hot to touch subtly plants an eroticism and energy in the song that infuses the romanticism of the song, and especially its allusive bridge, with a real urgency and drive. Its last lyric might be the perfect understatement of the importance of connection in a dangerous and lonely world. In my estimation, this song is Dave’s music at its best – tender, earnest, sexy, and powerful.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
Dave’s debut release comes at an exciting time for independent music. Markets for all sorts of music have been discovered to exist simultaneously and talented artists of all stripes have been given opportunities that were unheard of in years past. Among this wealth of new voices, Dave’s is notable. He brings to the Toronto scene, and to the independent music scene more generally, a sense of humour, a jolt of energy, and an emotional tug that is hard to ignore.
I have found much in Songs of Sense and Colour, and I hope that its whole audience finds the album as pregnant with meaning as I did. Each song has its own treasures to seek, and those treasures may take different forms for every listener. Seek those treasures out, cherish them, and share them with those around you.

Steven Slavens
Toronto, 2008