The Daredevil Christopher Wright – The Nature of Things

Score: 8.9/10
File Under: Music
The Daredevil Christopher Wright

Hailing from the small town of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, The Daredevil Christopher Wright is back with their sophomore album, The Nature of Things. The folk-blues trio is composed of brothers Jon and Jason Sunde and their friend Jesse Edgington,  And though they come from the wintry north, they shun the gloom and dreariness by creating an original blend of folk with a bright fervor and whimsical finesse.

The Nature of Things boasts of a new-found maturity absent from their previous album, In Deference For A Broken Back. All the songs on the new album take fruit in nostalgic stories of addiction, death, and lost love, but are polished with production and instrumentation that shed a playful smile and a glimmer of hope. The lyrics speak to years of experience as they “keep [their] hobbled hopes under a lock and key,” incorruptible by a world of cynicism.

But what propels the album forward are the memorable and vigorous voices of the trio. It’s a rare delight to come across a band that evokes such memorable vocal quality. It’s as if hearing Crosby, Stills, and Nash again- a beautiful blend of voices that effortlessly seam into an amalgam of pleasing harmonies. Absent of any grit or hoarseness, the words clearly ring with an incantatory quality, as if they were serenading the listener. The songs “Ames IA” and “Blood Brother” are a testament to their skills as classically trained vocalists, and their a-cappella and falsetto harmonies sweeten the gloomy content in the lyrics.

The songs are ear-candy for any folk-listener or Fleet Foxes fanatic. The Nature of Things would be a great fit on a soundtrack to a popular indie film- one containing songs that everyone falls in love with but no one initially knows about. The songs “San Francisco Bay,” and “Andrew the Wanderer” sound of a lazy summer day- each laden with rolling guitar riffs, swaying and soft timbres, and subtle but strolling bass lines.

The Nature of Things keeps the listener in a relaxing but enjoyable haze from start to finish. Absent of any eccentricities, the production has an intimate and raw quality; it could easily be mistaken for a rare, unplugged album. In essence, the album is a tale where the listener is allowed to glimpse into the nature of things that go on seen and unseen everyday.