David Garza
Dream Delay (Cosmica)Between the technological tangle that seals Dream Delay, Ministry’s Al Jourgensen himself hollering amidst the miasma of “Minority Boys Got $,” and David Garza’s street-beat lyricism – “cloudy as Cocteau,” rampant as Jim Carroll – writhes Austin’s Prince. The Cured melodicism of opener “2 Sinners in the Garden” (“We are tight like two sinners in the garden”) runs into the succeeding Spoon spazz of “Dead French Dudes,” Garza scrolling through Franglish (“j’ne pas parles Paris y tu na hablas Tejanese”), while “Just the Bass” kicks with a spoken rap that gives way to pillow-talk stream of subconsciousness (“fly medieval maidens maypoling”) and proves as seductive as nonsensical yet vulnerable. The digital density of dance track “Love Back” contrasts piano ballad “Wake Up” and the hazy title cut, featuring Fiona Apple where Lindsey Buckingham would’ve chorused Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks. Apple also helps wrap proceedings on Gershwin-kissed closer “Loveless.” Ten tracks at a crisp 38 minutes submerge Dream Delay into David Garza’s lover-man romanticism. As he instructs on the mariachi Kid A of “Be My On & On,” “Unplug the DJ, DG is here to play.”
This article appears in January 23 • 2009.
