The second album by Doveman (aka Thomas Bartlett) is just as hushed in tone as his debut, but instead of coming off as lush or opulent, he now sounds terse, minimal, and even cagey-- There's nothing that's "easy" listening about With My Left Hand, I Raise the Dead. The layered drone of "The Sunken Queen" opens, only adding a few idle plucks of banjo and barely scratching the drums while Bartlett whispers deliberately over the hum of organ. Minutes later, we get a drumbeat, and the song drags its dying husk towards some sort of release, like an exhausted full-band blowout following a rave-up we never got to hear. Fans probably expect it by now, but all the songs are driven by the sparse, intermittent piano and whisper of Bartlett, over which his other players always tread gingerly.
There are a number of untitled instrumental interludes here, almost as many as there are proper tracks. Some of these nameless sections might be even more rewarding than the songs, like when the weightless piano dirge of "Tender Mercies" bumps against the chilly wails of the fourth track. The latter then offers an apt buildup and a striking juxtaposition against the deliberate picking of "Sunrise", a song with a delivery so precious it might break to pieces if one were to blow on it hard enough. From near-industrial drones to reverberating keyboards to incompetent blues and fake rain, there are many unexpected textures on the record, none of which threaten to raise their voice any louder than Bartlett's. Some listeners may tire of the relentlessly mannered songs, but Bartlett is a strong enough performer to carry it-- or at least, he keeps everyone on his own muted level.
It's just a shame there are so many interesting and unpredictable textures in the interludes, while the songs are all rather uniform in tone and instrumentation. In that way, With My Left Hand seems like decent EP or short album alternated with a lot of atmospheric-- if well done-- in-studio navel-gazing. Bartlett seems to want to play with texture as much as he wants to write a melody, though the "real" songs rarely reflect this. "Tender Mercies" does so only because it splits the difference, with Bartlett's piano and voice only coming around the two-minute mark, preceded by intermittently struck keyboards, drums that barely keep time, and banjo that ever-so-carefully creeps up to outlining a melodic theme.
A pared-down remake of "Chasing Clouds", from Doveman's debut The Acrobat, is as concrete as things get, with a 4/4 strum and a horn part that actually provides a sort of counter-melody, and even some strings at the song's close. It's a track with not just atmosphere, but purpose, a sense of direction. But its late appearance on the record is simply leading up to "Ghost", the clear centerpiece of the record. It's a sharply melodic song, with a curveball B-section that's one of the album most memorable moments. Still, while it's worthy of the buildup, it requires some endurance to make it this far.
The later songs on the record are more varied, and often stronger: "Fireworks" adds additional instrumentation and a little bit of volume, and "Happy", especially, applies all the lessons of the interludes to a layered and immersive ballad. The background track for "Secrets" is dazzling, mixing the glistening scrape and pluck of strings into a watery, late-night-by-the-lake feel. Unfortunately, increased texture in the latter part of the record does nothing to change the tone of the songs. With My Left Hand is certainly carefully sequenced and meant to be listed to as a whole, brave enough not to frontload its best tracks in favor of bringing the listener on a sort of journey as the record floats in and out like a fog. As to whether it all holds together...well, yes, if you're patient. But the payoff is ultimately slight.
