Audio By Carbonatix
The title to Damon Gough’s latest epic should be a crystal-clear indicator of what you will hear over the course of the hour. One Plus One Is One is a 60-minute, 16-track musical journey through tales of infatuation, heartbreak, and loneliness, always bringing Gough back to square one.
And while the songs on this album sometimes veer back into the familiar territory of his earlier albums, Gough’s talent for building beautiful lyrics on top of lush orchestrations (Gough plays all the instruments, including banjo, cello, and violin) is strongest on songs like “This Is That New Song,” on which he sings “If I knew where all the tears were flowing/I’d guide them to a river/Where I’d swim with you down stream/This is that old dream.”
While One Plus One Is One lacks the rawness of his debut, The Hour of the Bewilderbeast, and the technical complexity of follow-up Have You Fed the Fish?, the album maintains an impressive composition. The tracks shoot from poppy toe tappers to cozy, woozy, rainy-day comfort songs, and Gough wouldn’t have it any other way. — Heather Ross