Review Summary: An honest singer-songwriter album with witty lyrics, creative instrumentation, and masterful storytelling that provokes everything from nostalgia to laughter to sadness. Once you accustom yourself to the vocals, it serves as a satisfying listen.
Remember life as a five-year old? Attached at the hip to your mom/dad, no responsibility, and staying up late at night was always a special privilege? Singer-songwriter Max Sollisch, otherwise known as Dolfish, takes you right back to those days in the opening track of his full-length album, I’d Rather Disappear Than Stay the Same. The song, appropriately named “Grown Ups”, tells the story of a much younger Max, and his experiences with his alcoholic mother. Though the subject is bleak, the song does deliver a sad and sweet story of recalled memories of staying up late with his mom, “watching Friday night TV”. Perhaps the most disappointing part of this album is that its emotional peak occurs in the opening track. It set the bar a bit high for the rest of the album. Even though the rest is very enjoyable, it left me with a sense of yearning.
Dolfish is the epitome of a storyteller, as all singer-songwriters should aspire to be. One of the more overwhelming factors in the “singer-songwriter” style is certainly the voice that tells the story. That being said, the voice of Dolfish is certainly a unique one. The high-pitched, often nasally dialect is hard to confuse with many other singers. When I first heard his voice in a video of him performing one of his songs called “Your Love is Bumming Me Out”, I hated it. Although I thought the folky, intricate guitar work was excellent, even rivaling The Tallest Man on Earth’s fingerpicking prowess, I found his voice to be nearly impossible to get past. Still, it intrigued me; was he serious with that style of singing? Finding out the answer became an addiction of sorts. And the more I listened, the fonder I felt towards it; it became familiar. In a way, it became lovable.
I soon learned that he was serious with his singing; every lyric was purposeful and served the greater purpose of telling a story. Often, the songs take an observatory role; they look outwardly at the world with laughter/sadness/nostalgia. Max Sollisch also remembers to take a good look at himself in songs such as “Must Be Something Wrong With These Shoes” and “Oil in This Heart”.
“Well there must be something wrong with this heart. Pumps the blood down to my dick and leaves my brain sittin’ in the dark.” – “There Must Be Something Wrong With These Shoes”
Sollisch also includes some observations of god in “God is the Loneliness of Lovers”. Humanizing an entity such as “god” is a perfect example of Dolfish’s use of creative storytelling. Even though the electronic drums in this song are silly, and a bit of a turn-off, the lyrics are great, and the background synth is pretty redeeming and non-obtrusive.
The simple and child-like manner of looking at things that Dolfish uses in his lyrics slightly reminds me of what Andrew Jackson Jihad does (except with a lot less sarcasm). AJJ often will take their songs to the point where it’s impossible to take the theme seriously (in the best way possible), but Dolfish doesn’t seem to run into this problem often in the album. Although there is some light satire, he stays sincere.
As I mentioned earlier, his guitar playing reminded me of The Tallest Man on Earth’s. I’m not particularly crazy about comparing artists, but I couldn’t help but thing of the similarities/differences between these two artists. While both undoubtedly carry some influence from Bob Dylan, and utilize similar fingerpicking patterns and song structures, they are vastly different when it comes to vocals. The Tallest Man on Earth’s voice is practically perfect for his genre; the Bob Dylan-esque vocals fit perfectly and wouldn’t offend any listener of that style of music. Dolfish’s vocals are obviously the more challenging of the two. He may not be as perfect, but there’s more personality, and with that, more humanity. If The Tallest Man on Earth is Mozart, with perfect instrumentation and songwriting (said to be the “voice of god”), then Dolfish is surely Beethoven (the more human of the two).
Sorry for the tangent. This album is a must for any fan of sincere folk music, or even just honest/humble songwriting in general. The way that the album isn’t overly produced leaves the listener with a more intimate and gritty experience overall, which works really well for Dolfish’s style. The blend of styles is very natural too, with a nice mix of folk, indie, and some country thrown in for good measure. I said it before, and I’ll say it again; Dolfish is a storyteller at heart. And who doesn’t love a good story?
7/10
Fav Track: Grown Ups
