Darden Smith - Field of Crows (Dualtone)

I had my introduction to Field of Crows during a transcontinental flight. Darden Smith’s quiet vocals (predictably) lost the battle with the white noise of the jet engine’s drone, and I was forced to base my first impression on the easygoing and fairly innocuous mood of the music. Back home, the more sedate setting allowed me to focus on the lyrics, and I was surprised how dark they were. Golden Age – which kicks off with “We’re living in the golden age of pain” – was immediately suggestive of Leonard Cohen’s The Future. On Fight for Love Smith convincingly channels another master of dark truths, Elvis Costello, but Mary – in which a divorced father sees his young daughter off, on her own, to her mother’s wedding – is all his own and the best song on the record.