Kid Dakota
A Winner’s Shadow
Graveface, 2008
By Allana Mayer
As regards this new Kid Dakota album: Look, guys, I know “Port Authority” and “Fall Out” are also great songs, but we’re gonna have to spend the minimum word requirement purely on “Downhill.” This may be upsetting to you, but I need you to know that I don’t care.
The thing about “Downhill,” you see, is that it’s perfectly fucking miserable. It’s the same miserable that made “Crossin’ Fingers” (the similarly standout track from 2003’s So Pretty) so satisfying to rock out to: Wow, relationships really suck. People lie and cheat and fall apart and think only of themselves. This time around it’s a little less damning, a little more given to the whims of chance. Relationships still suck, but now it’s a case of wrong place, wrong time, wrong mood, and contexts and lives that just don’t match up.
It’s nothing special: mostly just recycled broken-heart lines, “promises I didn’t keep” and “letters I never sent” and “walking away from you” and such. The downhill/uphill imagery works because I kind of think of lyricist Darren Jackson as a drug addict. Not one with a life-ending affliction, mind, just someone that works better under the influence. And I can see his alluded mate choosing between his nihilistic lethargy and the energy of a real go-getter…
The time it takes to get anywhere, as everything is drawn out beat by beat in Kid Dakota’s trademark proto-country minimalist drawl, probably makes it all seem a lot more important than it is. Actually, I know this is the case, because as mundane as it is to miss your chance by waiting too long (or “for the right moment,” as we often excuse our behaviour), it’s totally fucking relatable. Sigh.
And, just like the rest of So Pretty, the other songs on A Winner’s Shadow fade into unremarkability. Nothing against them, and they obviously make a good complement to the standout track (otherwise I’d be whining about idiot savants), but I’m not putting them on repeat deep into the night and that’s just the way it is.
Oh, you seriously want to know what else is on the album? Fine. “Fall Out” is lovely and graceful, and shows off Jackson’s higher register. “Transfusion” nails shoegazey slow pop on the head, and “Port Authority” is a dreary wreck of a good time. Happy?
