By Jay Mukherjee
For those not familiar with David Newton's career, he was one of the founding members of one of my all-time favorite 80's bands, The Mighty Lemon Drops. That group released 6 good-to-great records from 1986 to their ultimate demise in 1993. Newton moved to the United States from his native England in the mid-90's. Since then he has been both a member of some really good bands (like indie-rockers Fonda) and a producer for other cool acts, including the great L.A. outfit Cerulean, whose No Sense in Waiting is one of my favorite records (bonus review!). Check that one out if you are a fan of The House Of Love.(Incidentally, anybody know what happened to Cerulean?).
David Newton's primary band, David Newton & Thee Mighty Angels released an EP. Paint the Town, in 2012. Eight years later they have released A Gateway To A Life Of Disappointment. The album starts with the stomping "In Love and War", a great way to kick things off, with its Lightning Seeds-slash-O.M.D. chorus and melody. On Track 3, "The Songs that Changed Our Lives", Newton, along with guest Eddie Argos of Art Brut, uses a "talky-reciting list"-type of singing to reflect on his favorite songs, something that Irish band A House has employed in the past. "Paint the Town" starts with a Peter Hook-style bass-line before settling into a sweet melody very reminiscent of one of fellow reviewer Stan Cierlitsky's favorite bands, Spearmint. "Bittersweet" reminds me of a song that Squeeze could have written back in the day.
If you are expecting a Mighty Lemon Drops album, this isn't quite it, except for the one exception, the sublime final track "Everything Is Just So" with its guitar riffs and its sing-along chorus. My favorite song on the album, "My First Band", also gives us the title of the album, whereby Newton wistfully implies that starting a band in 1979 was a "gateway to a life of disappointments". I can imagine that this song would be a fantastic song to sing along to at a live concert, if we could go to concerts that is. Sigh. Overall, this album was a really nice surprise and put a giant smile on my face in the midst of these depressing times.
A Gateway to a Lifetime of Disappointment is out now via the link below.
More details on David Newton and Thee Mighty Angels via the official Facebook page.
[Photo: David Newton and Thee Mighty Angels Facebook page]