Serbian-Canadian singer-songwriter Dana Gavanski has shared her debut album ‘Yesterday is Gone’ (available via Bandcamp now). An alumni from our friends at Fox Food Records, the video for the album’s title track was filmed in the colourful and retro underground of Montreal’s metro system.
‘One By One’ is a slow and atmospheric introduction to the album with Rilo Kiley-style melodies and stunning harmonies as Dana offers up astute observations: ‘It reminds me that I’m done my eyes squint at the sun too long’. ‘Catch’ has a soulful sound that brings to mind the likes of Mavis Staples as Dana battles against loneliness amidst jaunty guitar hooks: ‘Think about how much time it took to get here’. Following this is ‘What We Had’, a delicately intimate piece about lost love that evolves into something wonderfully woozy, while the the recent single ‘Good Instead of Bad’ is a heartfelt piece of self-examination and reflection: ‘How can I be good to him? How can I be good instead of bad? How can I be true to him? How can I be true instead of bad?’
‘Trouble’ has a fuzzier DIY aesthetic with plenty of synths, riffs and a psychedelic ending (’round and round it goes passing into solitude’) while ‘Yesterday is Gone’ features always-welcome bursts of brass as it channels the spirit of Springsteen and Ben Kweller: ‘I don’t know what is right and I forgot what I like’; ‘It used to be something good’. ‘Everything that Bleeds’ also features brass and glockenspiel in the background as Dana ponders moving on to new things and the penultimate ‘Other Than’ contains a motivational message about keeping it together as you push through the bad times. The closing ‘Memories of Winter’ is a subtle slow-burner with post-rock tones that finds Dana asking ‘Is that really all we’ve got?’
This is, quite simply, a wonderful debut record from a hugely talented artist.