Doctors & Dealers “Lost Friends & Newfound Habits”

They’re definitely going for that Neko Case alt-country thing. These songs have all kinds of instruments of them, including trombone, trumpet and glockenspiel, which is much easier to type than to say. “He Went Down” puts it together fairly well. The melody on this track is weird. You can’t really tell when a line ends, because the last word always ends on an up note.

“How Many Hours Can a Cat Stay Asleep” is a piano-based ballad with sobering lyrics about cocaine and fish and other nouns of emotion. It’s very beautiful at what it’s trying to be. It is the only track longer than three minutes, too. “Allison” is a waltz and features a lot of piano.

“He Said That I Was Crazy” is peppy and fun to listen to. The backing vocals give it a bit of a Britpop feel. But the song that puts it all together is “Just Another Feeling.” The melody makes perfect sense and does a lot of what a Billy Joel song would do. Who needs any stinkin’ guitars? Not Doctors & Dealers during this ditty.

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