Waiting For The Sunrise

Just as there are albums that artists were born to make, there are albums that labels were born to release. Waiting For The Sunrise is one of those albums for both David Vandervelde and Secretly Canadian. Upon first laying the needle down, the listener is greeted by a warm wash of sounds that seems to breeze in from decades back. Vandervelde's singular voice emerges from the drums and keys with "When the morning comes, I will be fine, I will be fine, I will be fine" and you're pretty damn sure he will be. The tones may be familiar, but his voice as an artist is his own, new and wholly contemporary, and you feel lucky to be here to watch the emergence. Critics marveled at Vandervelde's songwriting on his debut Moonstation House Band, the mini-album which had the aesthetic wherewithal to hold its own side-for-side with the classics as a late night jam record. Spin magazine remarked that "at a pipsqueakish 22 years old, David Vandervelde is already generating the kind of indie-net whispering that musicians twice his age pine for." And on songs such as "California Breezes", "Someone Like You" and "Lyin' In Bed", it's clear that the material on this first long-player from Vandervelde is of a higher order - lyrically more personal and stripped down. Waiting For The Sunrise is the beautiful result of having extended himself both musically and emotionally.