(Acoustiс Rock, Singer-songwriter, Psychedelic) Damien Youth - Phantoms Of Fables - 2005, MP3, 320 kbps

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The All Music Guide describes Damien Youth: A mysterious cassette-only artist who began putting out material on tape in the late 1980s, although some of it started to appear on CD in the late 1990s. His music is haunting, acoustic rock with a sense of British whimsy akin to Robyn Hitchcock or Donovan (although, as his tapes were distributed from Louisiana, it's uncertain whether the singer is British). It's solid, melodic stuff that would most likely appeal to Hitchcock fans, despite the sparse production. His BRIDE OF THE ASYLUM CD of 1998 put some of his work into slightly larger circulation, in better fidelity. — Richie Unterberger

http://damienyouth.bandcamp.com/album/phantoms-of-fables
All Music Guide REVIEW by Richie Unterberger: The song remains pretty much the same over the course of the prolific Damien Youth's releases, but it's a pretty good song. And you get more than one song, of course, on Phantoms of Fables, though the approach is in line with most of his previous albums: pleasant, acoustic-based folk-pop-rock-psychedelia with some unusual lyrical twists. Since that nutshell description could be applied to some Robyn Hitchcock records, it's not that much of a surprise to find a tune here titled I Know Where Robyn Hitchcock Lives, itself likely a partial homage to Television Personalities' cult homage I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives. For the most part, however, the material's devoted to the kind of moods and topics common to Damien Youth territory: pastoral romance with a touch of the gothic and mystical, ghosts, melancholy days in the life (These Days Are But Molecules), and trippy and fearful disorientation (Freaked Out, Dead Relative). Some of the lyrics go into the odd and disturbing, like Doll Child's recollection of dressing up a woman (girlfriend?) like a doll child and covering her in glue, describing her as being to nymphomania "like Elvis is to heart attacks or black blind men are to blues." Still, the tone is more often than not friendly and reassuring, if more conducive to solitary dark rooms than open sunny fields. And while some more variation from the acoustic folk-rock Damien Youth frequents might be welcome, it's not all stuck in that format, going into mildly gutsy Syd Barrett-ish full rock on occasion (particularly I Know Where Robyn Hitchcock Lives), and employing forceful piano at others.

All songs by ROBERT DAMIEN YOUTH