My favourite idea for a music video goes like this:
We start inside a house and no one is home.  A man, 32-ish, walks in the front door.  It’s his house.  It’s approximately 7:30pm.  He takes off his shoes and throws his keys in a small bowl and puts his jacket and bag down on the floor.  His cat stares at him as he heads up the stairs towards his bedroom.  He turns on his stereo and music starts to play.  He then sits in the middle of his bed.  We slowly zoom in on his face and he starts to cry.  Not the heavy crying just tears coming down his face and we don’t know if those are happy tears or sad tears.  He just cries and eventually lies down but is still crying.  This goes on for a few minutes and we leave the room and the man alone.

Sigh.  So yeah, I’ve had that idea for a while.  It fits perfectly for songs of sadness yet still clinging on to some sort of hope.  Dntel’s first full-length album Life Is Full Of Possibilities was an album that fit the mold perfectly.  Sad and atmospheric electro-glitch-pop beats with soothing vocals singing about love and daydreams.

Dntel does it again with his newest album Dumb Luck on Sub Pop Records.  This time around, there are soothing, despondent vocals on every track and the glimmer of hope is just a bit brighter.  So maybe the 32-ish year old man is crying about something good.

James Tamborello, the man behind Dntel and member of Postal Service and Figurine, has a gift for teaming up with the right vocalist for each of the songs.  (Life Is Full Of Possibilities was basically the birth place of Postal Service.)  Some guest vocals on Dumb Luck include ‘Roll On’, a great track with Jenny Lewis (those five fragile notes at 2:26 are like tears rolling down your cheeks), reuniting with Mia Doi Todd on ‘Rock My Boat’ and Christopher Gunst on ‘Dreams’, and even a song with Conor Oberst (the Bright Eyes’ guy) on ‘Breakfast In Bed’.  I don’t even like Bright Eyes, but when I listened to this track, about wanting to keep something you can’t keep, it requires I go to bed and allow those tears to be shed.  Hey, that rhymes!

The album won’t be out until April 24th, but you can listen to the whole album on Dntel’s Myspace page.  For some more James Tamborello, give Figurine and his other solo project, James Figurine, a listen.  And be prepared to lie down on your bed.  And cry.  Maybe bad tears.  Maybe good tears.