Blake and Fallon,
Wasted Day



Label: (self-released)

(3½ out of 5)

Perhaps it's because I'm at a station in life where it's painfully obvious there are more questions than answers, and frustrating there are no meaningful signs to point the way. Or perhaps it's just one hell of a catchy number. For whatever reason, Blake and Fallon hooked me with the first song on Wasted Day. The title track bemoans the passage of time and the gulf separating dreams from reality: I had the dream again, that I was flying / I got six hours of sleep, then I am back on my feet / I'm just one of the sheep, and I can taste it. Variations on that theme recur throughout Wasted Day, as Blake and Fallon descry the tang of self-awareness. A dour message, perhaps, but it's sugarcoated with some of the sweetest folk-pop I've heard in some time, with the Austin-based trio (Blake Powers and Fallon Franklin, plus drummer Joey Campbell) falling along the literate singer/songwriter continuum somewhere between Darden Smith and Glen Phillips. Life may sometimes seem a pill too bitter to swallow, but beautiful art like Blake and Fallon's helps makes the everyday bearable and occasionally even transcendent.

Listen to: "Wasted Day," "Bathroom Floor," "Angelina," "Stay"

Note: You can order Wasted Day directly from Blake and Fallon for $12.

Reviewed by Patrick Nichols (email)
January 15, 2007