Duskland is a good name for a Zachary Cale album. Duskland would be a good name for all Zachary Cale albums. The NYC-based singer-songwriter has released four of them in four years, and they all take place somewhere similar. They are reliable and soothing, like old-fashioneds: Mix a little barely-perceptible organ hum and faraway slide guitars of '90s Yo La Tengo with the reedy voice of Cass McCombs, twist a few melancholic turns of phrase, and you will arrive at the place Zachary Cale is transmitting from. It's an inviting spot.
His last album, 2013's Blue Rider, glides well into this one: You can cue them up and lose yourself in a pleasant haze for a couple of hours and not take immediate notice where they end. Cale probably wouldn't be offended by the suggestion: His 2011 collection was called Noise of Welcome, and so was a song on 2013's Blue Rider. He likes "blue": besides Blue Rider, Duskland has a "Blue Moth". The crisp, palm-muted acoustic strumming pattern on "I Left the Old Cell" is pretty-damn-near identical to the one on "Hold Fast" from Blue Rider. He repeats himself, but it doesn't make his music feel redundant, just identifiable as his own.
Squint into the haze, however, and you'll discern moving parts in these simple and rootsy songs that help them resonate. "Sundowner" has a softly complicated arrangement—organs chime at different levels in the mix, playing different chord voicings, and somewhere in that rosy glow, a steady piano pulses. Cale's solo acoustic playing usually covers all corners of an arrangement, from backbeat and melody to counterpoint. But he has a full band on Duskland, one that confidently evokes dream pop and country rock, and he luxuriates in their sound.
There are some horns on "Low Light Serenade" (another very on-the-nose song title) that might have come from a Matthew E. White production, or Phosphorescent's last album. Cale makes good company with those artists, but his essence feels a little more elusive. Sometimes, that's just because it's often hard to make out what he is singing, even though his voice is mixed high; you can listen to a song multiple times, and only catch a few phrases. His singing is also odd, drawing out notes that don't seem obvious and hitching unexpectedly at others. He sits just far enough away from you. He's close enough to draw your attention, but far enough away to make you lean forward and follow him.
