Lately You Have Been Lonely by Bryant Dunivan.

An upbeat short track which starts off slow, is somewhat playful with the lyrics while at the same time drawing attention to the deeper meaning of the subject matter at hand. Nice contrasts.

It starts off like a slow vocal lead of a today radio song, and then excitingly shifts gears once what to me sounds like a keyboard glissando takes place. There is no time to waste to get into the hook line that will follow throughout, the "lately you’ve been lonely" line.

I think the lyrics works on a haunting level mainly because of that snake-charming treble wind instrument that follows it, and carries over obediently. I like how the lyrics, rides then breaks once it gets going, and also how the wind instrument quickly hits some smart ass notes that to me subtly reinforces the meaning behind the words that Bryant chooses to paint pictures.

The last words to the hook; “its time to clear those eyes” kind of left things hanging for me though. I am not sure that is the desired effect, but it didn’t feel natural enough, maybe it was just the way it was said, ey-es? The overall sound of the vocal is soft but that shouldn’t mean it can’t be fuller. On the other hand the choice of instruments and how they carry the tune establishes its originality, and quirkiness.

Not to mention the talking, and singing style done in this track which kind of reminded me of a certain Fiona Apple, (an NY based jazzy-pop girl), which made me think; ok then I like where this is going.

Lately you’ve been lonely by Bryant Dunivan:
lo-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=5185470&q=lo
hi-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=5185470&q=hi

Review by Laysounds

About a month and a half ago, I received an email from
a guy calling himself Bryant Dunivan. I had actually
been talking with this guy on a message board
community for some time before I had received this
email, but that isn't important. Dunivan had seen my
ad for Soundclash and asked me if I could review his
latest CD for him. Since I am always looking for
content for this site, I agreed happily. But once I
received his CD, I discovered something rather unique.
The first track on this album kinda gets off to a
slow start. In fact, most of the tracks are very
repetitive. The only constant is the bass, for there
isn't as much guitar and other instruments as I would
like in an album. But thankfully most peoples tastes
in music are very diverse... I'm just picky. The first
track, oddly titled "Dot Dot Smiley Face" starts slow
with a kinda repetitive bass-line... in fact, the
baseline if the only thing in this, except for some
rather colorful lyrics. The second song on the lineup
is called "Half Spirit," another bass-driven song with
colorful lyrics.
As the tracks continue on this CD, they make the
listener realize pretty much everything that's going
on around them, in a kind of semi-hippyism that really
amazes me. there is a cover of Sublime's acoustic
ballad, "What I Got" which surprised me because I had
never heard a cover of that song before, and it was
kind of interesting to hear that wonderful melody from
a different perspective.
The wonderful bass-controlled music on this album
continues through the other tracks, which hold names
such as "in Discovery Of," "Mind Crush," and "Herbal
Journey." Some people could argue that this album goes
on too long, with too many bass-lines that sound the
same... and that the trippyism wears off after the
half of this album. I would tend to call those people
either (A) Close Minded, or (B) Having Bad Taste. This
album surprised me... leaped up from behind me and bit
me in the ass. When Dunivan told me that "You have
never heard anything like this before," he was right.
When it comes down to scoring crunch-time I an
going to have to give Bryant Dunivan's new album, The
Senior Sessions a 3 and 1/2 out of 5 overall
Soundclash Score. it's not often that I describe music
that can surprise people like this album did. keep up
the good work, Bryant!