Damion Suomi: Damion Suomi
Suomi’s melodies are equal parts rowdy and rousing
Even in his most intimate tracks, Suomi doesn’t try to outdo himself with grandiosity and sweeping emotions. Rather, his album runs the gamut from stark sincerity to rambunctious bourbon-swigging.
The roughhousing subsides in some of Suomi’s more poignant songs, like “Archer Woman,” a simple song about an untamable green-eyed lover, and “What a Wonderful Game,” a bitter ode to a vapid, purely sexual relationship. Suomi’s jarring cynicism can overwhelm in one dose, but his pounding, unruly bar-crowd songs are foot-stompingly uplifting.
He abandons the singer-songwriter maxim of teary-eyed, wistful yearning, and instead, his often-gritty Southern lilt hammers out an uproarious and honest record.