Short Reviews [Dario and the Clear - 2021 - "Optic Nerve"]

Dario Saraceno is a graduate of Berklee College of Music, and after his Decoy project ended he formed Dario and the Clear who have released five albums since 2011. Here he has reunited with keyboard players, Jamie Peck and Natt Kerr, as well as Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel) and Jerry Marotta (Orleans, Peter Gabriel & Paul McCartney). Trey Gunn (King Crimson) is on Warr guitar while engineer, Eric Dalton, joins Dario for the first time on bass and backing vocals and Robert Kopec on upright and electric bass. Adam Siegel joins on alto sax, and the result of all these musicians is something which is polished and full of great musicianship, but somewhere along the line it lost its soul. This is something that rapidly falls into the background as there is little here which really grabs attention, and there is too much at the same level. The vocals are pleasant, but never exciting, and the same goes for the songs themselves as he moves through loungecore, ambient, prog and even some rock. There is one song which stands out above the rest, “Smile/Lies”, which is a belter, and in many ways shows what could have been achieved if he had stayed in this style. While this melodic rocker still has issues, it is far above the rest of the album, which is instantly forgettable. The life has been forced out of it by too much polish, and not nearly enough grit and realism. Not one to which I will rapidly returning.