Track Listing

1. Iron Woman
2. When I Turn Ninety-Nine
3. Turtle and the Flightless Bird
4. Moon Over Shark City
5. Cannons at the Courthouse
6. Transcendental Sports Anthem
7. Sandie
8. Paratrooper With Amnesia
9. Giant Spiders
10. Choir Invisible
11. Deserted Eyeland

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #188287 in Music
• Released on: 2005-03-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .16 pounds

Album Description
The solo debut from Chicago’s Devin Davis is a collection of songs whose all-encompassing theme is that of loneliness. In much the same way that The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs was a meditation on love, Lonely People is an anthemic ode to loneliness in its many forms and effects. The theme of loneliness was decided upon partly as a result of the recording process that Davis followed, with marathon sessions in the studio, often in the middle of the night, over a two-year period. Told in first person through the eyes of a varied cast of characters, (ranging from William Tell and the ghost of legendary American wanderer Everett Reuss to an amphibian in love with a wounded bird and a sea-weary Viking), these songs seek to be more story than diary entry, with settings as varied as a Starbucks on top of Mt. Everest and a bomb shelter in the midst of a nuclear war.

Chicago Reader
"Showcases [Davis'] penchant for the big-tableau, feedback-laden hooks, and winking wordplay associated with arena-friendly power-poppers like Superdrag and Weezer."

Customer Reviews

High Society Friends
If this album has impact that it should, Devin will not be lonely for long. His album covers all the bases of rock. Great drums, distorted guitars, horns and fireworks!?? The technical aspects of the music are solid. Devin is a talented musician and more. Come on, he played, recorded, mixed, engineered, and arranged everything himself. The music is infectious, after the first play I have yet to get the chorus from 'Turtle and the Flightless Bird' out of my head. He references the Monkees, Willie Nelson and there is a looming presence of Beatles pop power. His lyrics are clever and each song is concise enough to keep an ADD kid attentive. If you do not already own this album, order one and prepare to rock out.

Where's the 4-and-a-half stars? A _SOLID_ debut.
Rarely will I applaud an album that has vocals that are hoarsely shouted instead of sung, voice wavering in the keys. But you know the type of album that happens when someone's adequately studied their record collection and knows what _works_ in rock'n'roll? This is for the Sloan, Flashing Lights and New Pornographers fans out there: this guy can _rock_. He also knows his way around the studio, picking up most any instrument he can find. The arrangements are just the right amount of sloppy (think "Sticky Fingers"), the music often wants to make you hit the accelerator pedal while cruising. The occasional wit is strong enough to appreciate while tasteful enough not to wince. "Iron Woman" and "When I Turn Ninety-Nine" are a 1-2 startoff punch that starts off by showing a balls-rock thing or two to the punk-popsters and the stone-rockers, quickly following with a distorted T-Rex-type boogie that doesn't hesitate to include a bridge that sounds like a pensive beat group on prellies (say, early early Who) after imbibing the influence of the Zombies. What follows afterwards is a kaleidoscope of styles and influences, often one-upping those who are best known for pulling these aces from their sleeves. IMO, the album only falters when the blues-romp piano intro of "Paratroopers with Amnesia" begins, but by that time seven excellent tracks have already played. Not to say the album stops at the eighth track: "Giant Spiders" brings "Who's Next"-era Who into the 21st century Top-40 (complete with _that_ synthesizer), "The Invisible Choir" is one last stab at intelligencia, and "Distorted Eyeland" surprisingly comes across as John Mayer flashbacking to 1967's Summer of Love albums. Words can't do it justice, go listen to the sample MP3s at www.devindaviswebsite.com a few times and then buy the album. These ones don't show up everyday.

Devin Davis is a do-it-all natural wonder who has created a pop masterpiece
I live in the 60657 zip code, which is also home to Wrigley Field, the Metro, the Vic, and apparently Mousse Records, record label that currently consists of only one release, this album. So forgive me if I presume to consider Devin Davis not merely a Chicago artist, but a Lakeview artist (Lakeview being what we who live here call the area, but which bartenders and those not living in the area tend to call Wrigleyville).

Devin Davis is the ultimate do-it-all performer, even if he doesn't quite do it all. On this album, while he undertakes the vast majority of the musical parts, he does solicit help at a few points. But as producer, sound engineer, label owner, songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist (he is listed as playing guitar, bass, drums, sax, organ, piano, percussion, Theremin, trumpet, trombone, and--I'm not making this up--giant gong) Davis really is the whole show. He even designed his own website. All of this seems quite appropriate for an album entitled LONELY PEOPLE OF THE WORLD UNITE.

This album is going remind people of the work of a lot of other power pop performers out there. Some have mentioned Brendan Benson and I can certainly see some of that. Actually, I find him similar to any of a host of performers who have been more or less inspired by Ray Davies, probably the godfather of them all. But this is not to suggest that he merely sounds like a knock off of more familiar performers. This album is a great one and it is so simply because of its inherent qualities. Basically, if you love hook-laden melodies and marvelously constructed and performed songs, this album will suck you in and delight you. The playing is so fine that you'll never suspect that Davis is doing all of the playing. It really does sound like a first rate band at work. Some here don't seem to like his voice. I have to confess that while it doesn't blow me away I am not at any point bothered by it. It doesn't possess the idiosyncrasies of Danielson's Daniel Smith, which truly does impede my enjoyment of his various albums ("Danielson" being merely one of the names Smith uses for his projects), and I find Davis at least as decent as most Indie performers.

What really makes this album work in the end is the strength of the songs. The playing really is pretty amazing when you realize that all of it is Davis, but it still all comes back to the songs. This is an extremely strong group of songs and it is entirely possible for two different people to pick their four favorites and have no overlap between them. For the record, my four favorites would probably (well, at least today) be the first three--"Iron Woman," "When I Turn Nine-Nine," and "Turtle and the Flightless Bird"--and either "Transcendental Sports Anthem" or "Paratrooper with Amnesia" (see, I've already been reduced to cheating). But then there is "Moon Over Shark City." Even if played by a full band this would be a stunning song, but when you realize that the chorus of sounds--saxes, hard driving piano, gritty guitars--are all Davis, it becomes something barely short of miraculous.

Later this year Devin Davis will be releasing his second album. Sophomore efforts are notoriously difficult. It is going to be really hard for him to reproduce the brilliance of this first effort. But that is really not relevant to this album. If your musical tastes run towards people like the New Pornographers, Brendan Benson, Sloan, Essex Green, and the New Constitution, you will absolutely flip out over this album. Buy it and play it for your friends and witness their amazement.