De Novo Dahl debuted back in 2005 with Cats & Kittens, a wildly ambitious double album that presented all of its songs twice in drastically altered forms, demonstrating a bold eclecticism. It was a fun record with a lot of alleys to explore and I still listen to it now and then. The thing about debuting like that is that it's hard to go even further on your second album, and so the Nashville band's sophomore offering, Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound, is significantly pared back and more focused, leaning on the hooky power-pop sound that characterized disc one of the first album. They've also trimmed down from a sextet to a quintet.
That basic power-pop framework still has plenty of room for splashes of biting new wave synth, the occasional proggy flourish, a few disco-fied beats, and other touches that keep things interesting from song to song. It's much easier to absorb in just a few listens and is spiked with a few phenomenal high points. The opening two tracks are massive and immediate. "Shout" is like American Supergrass, with ooh-ing and aah-ing backup vocals, thick, r&b-informed rhythm section playing and a ridiculously anthemic chorus whose lyrics nod, perhaps unintentionally, to Tears for Fears. The title of "Heartbreaker" is aspirational, as Joel J Dahl (aka Joel McAnulty) sings of his desire to crush another person romantically in a glammy croon that has you rooting for him to succeed. Matthew Hungate's wall of sunshine-drenched organ completes the sale.
De Novo Dahl does up-tempo very well-- you'd probably have to hate rock'n'roll not to fall for the under-two-minute blast of garage rock organ boisterous group singing that constitutes the new, beefier version of Cats' "Be Your Man"-- but the variety of slower songs that dot the album have their moments as well. "Marketplace" is one of Dahl's finest moments melodically, as he follows the deliberately ascending bassline with a dramatic croon. The song is a stunning centerpiece for the album, and packs more emotional punch than "Not to Escape", the album's world-weary closer, which gets a little lost in its own haziness.
De Novo Dahl is a detail-oriented band, and they miss few chances to add an ornament or shift the dynamics of a song from a busy arrangement to one with just a few instruments. Even the amount of reverb is varied considerably within songs. "New Hero" has dry verses where Dahl does a swooning soul-man thing, but when he's joined by Serai Zeffiro's harmonies on the chorus, they're suddenly in Phil Spector's echo chamber, but it really helps to make the individual sections stand out in your memory. The core song of "Wishful Thinking" isn't even that memorable, but Zaffiro's backing vocals add hooks where there were none to shore it up.
