Andrew Combs‘ lovely new album Dream Pictures can best be described as a collection of watercolors. The dozen tracks are soft and delightful, full of gentle surprises and inviting touches. This is mood music of the highest sort. The LP, as a whole, exudes a rich melancholy tinged with joy and a hint of danger. Combs has said he penned the songs out of a feeling of contentment, and that emotion comes across. One can never be too sure about life and love. Things can always go wrong. But for the moment, everything is fine. Combs takes a breath and enjoys his good luck.
The Nashville singer-songwriter wears his melancholy lightly, even when he sings about how “Heavy the Heart” is. He proclaims his joys tenderly with soothing sounds. Like Vincent Van Gogh, Combs frequently paints in blues and gold. But while the Dutchman used big, bold strokes, Combs expresses his blues with a tender touch. Blue is the night spent alone at the table in some café. In Combs ‘ artworks, yellow flowers are in the vase, but these are marigolds, not giant sunflowers. The drama is tempered but no less real. The musician conveys the quotidian beauty of everyday life.
Andrew Combs wrote and recorded these songs in his garage at the end of the day after he had put his kids to bed. The tracks capture that dreamlike mood when dusk settles like dust in the evening. The most beautiful song, “Eventide”, takes its name from this part of the day. He describes his love for another (“You are my back against the wall / My hands when I’m falling”) in terms of his needs. His vulnerability scares him. He finds comfort in another like he’s telling a secret we all already know.
The songwriter sings in a soothing voice, even when acknowledging distress. “I’m tired of the sea,” he croons in an undulating voice resembling the movement of waves. He notes that the ocean is inside of him. He’s not drowning. “I’m Fine”, he croons elsewhere. Pleasure and pain are “the taste of rain”—part of the natural and necessary cycle of human relationships. He wryly asks, “Are you busy laughing while I’m punching the wall?” in a Beatlesque tone right out of “Norwegian Wood”. Combs bird may have flown, but she hardly ever crosses his mind these days. One presumes he has found another love, and this is just a memory. He doesn’t raise the volume or get excited while recalling the affair.
Andrew Combs plays acoustic guitar and is joined by co-producer and drummer Don Billett as well as pedal steel maestro Spencer Cullum, who adds shading to Combs’ compositions. Some tracks, such as “Your Eyes and Me” and “Genuine and Pure”, seem almost naked in their prettiness. There is splendor in the simplicity, like a sunset at the close of day. But that’s just one side of the artist. Dream Pictures does have its share of variety. Combs is not afraid to get weird.
The record opens with “Fly in the Wine”, which sounds just like its title suggests, like a drunken insect buzzing. While the rest of the LP seems daubed on a blank canvas, this fly buzzes over what sounds like a busy airport lounge with stray conversations and other crowd noises. The title track closes the album. He leaves us with “Dream Pictures” that teach us to appreciate what is good. Maybe the bad times really are over. The COVID crisis and its aftermath, the extreme political tensions of the past eight years, and the general miasma that infected the zeitgeist with negativity and gloom have cleared. Dream Pictures serves as the robin in the spring, a sign that seasons have changed. The record is not a chronicle of happiness as much as a statement of normalcy.