Record Review: Des Ark

by | Jul 7, 2011 | Reviews

Des Ark
Don’t Rock The Boat, Sink The Fucker
Philadelphia, PA

“Regina Spektor meets Cursive”

Don’t Rock The Boat, Sink The Fucker is a magnetic telltale of vulnerability, opulent instrumentation and commanding truths. The Philadelphia-based and Southern-bred Des Ark, with the wittily outspoken Aimée Argote at the group’s centrifuge, coalesces pop-balladeer elegance with power chord rigidity on their follow up to 2005’s Loose Lips Sink Ships.

“Howard’s Hour of Shower” is a stereophonic conversation of disclosure and up-front honesty, with clean guitars panning and fluttering atop sweetly saddened lyrics about getting love “all wrong” like, “…to figure out what I thought you are/how your life’s really a mess, how you’re weird about sex, and how every time you cry it’s because you wanna die.”

“Bonne Chance Asshole,” the shortest track on Sink The Fucker at just over two minutes, is a face-off of dynamics, where the first half wades in guitar minimalism and whispered sentiments of contempt for places once visited, juxtaposed to a rushing crusade of high energy, dominating drums and clanging pianos all the while wallowing in merriment.

The compounded versatility and beauty embodied by Don’t Rock The Boat, Sink The Fucker captures growth and diary-entry honesty, serving as evidence of Des Ark’s genuineness, relatability and musical buoyancy. (Lovitt Records)

desark.org