The previous album by this Auckland-based four-piece, Cross Your Heart, announced a heartland country-rock band in the Warratahs' lineage, but one given a slightly more alt.country twist.
You may have heard their theme music for Marcus Lush's small-screen programme North.
De Sotos' music is suited to such projects, but
they also have strong songwriters and the band doesn't pull its country-rock punches on songs like What We Do and Mr Timeshare (the latter not their strongest moment however, as its title might suggest).
Yet despite the seeming awkwardness of its title, Dysfunction here sketches in a broody, metaphorical narrative with a sense of menace and loss in its finely distributed details. This is the musical equivalent of our famous "cinema of unease".
There are a number of songs here about loss, the fading past, separation - Paid in Full, Runnin', Can't Go Back - but one of the finest is Neon Light which hints at the balladry of Roy Orbison with its gently soaring melody.
The lengthy In the Harbour (about the Wahine disaster) is an overlong dirge however and at 14 songs - the gentle but unmemorable Sunny Day and World's Below might also have been culled - this does feel like it is over-reaching.
A more economic selection which favoured the musically edgy songs would have had more impact.
Stars: 3/5
Verdict: Never mind the length, feel the quality songs
Buy Your Highway For Tonight
- TimeOut
