It’s often the case that good music is filled with paradoxes. Whether it’s a calmly beautiful folk song that carries an almost militant political message or a song that’s instrumentally sparse but somehow expresses a complex subject, these songs achieve something spectacular. Such is the case with Okay‘s new album Huggable Dust (2008, Absolutely Kosher).
The Fremont band, which is essentially one man, Marty Anderson, and friends, has caught the ears of many passionate and adoring fans throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Huggable Dust, a followup to the 2005 double-release of Low Road and High Road, is characteristic of the sound Okay fans have come to know and love, but with a few extra kicks.
The sound itself is filled with contradictions — some tracks as simple as children’s songs, with tinkling piano and guitar, and others densely layered with synth and wind sounds that feel futuristic in contrast to the acoustic base — see track 13, “Poof.”
With Low Road and High Road, the overdubs were rumored to have exceeded the double digits, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same is true for some of the songs on Huggable Dust. But this is just one of the album’s extremes — whether it’s optimism and pessimism, simple and complex, loud and soft, sparse and crowded, it’s got everything — sometimes to a dizzying degree.The first listen is like seeing your first Jackson Pollock painting after looking at Renoir your whole life.
Anderson’s somewhat scratchy, almost strained-sounding voice may not resonate with everyone, but if you can hear it for the raw emotion and almost ironic pain that comes through, you’ll be sold. One can’t read about Anderson without learning that he has Crohn’s Disease, a gastrointestinal condition that, to say the least, is incredibly painful and has caused him many a night in the hospital. But what is so noteworthy about this fact is not that he elicits pity for his condition or anything of the sort, but rather that he has managed to take his experiences, build a spectacular outlook on life and craft songs that anyone can relate to — both in pain and elation.