A little over a year after their comeback self-titled album, The Dangerous Summer are back again with their newest album, Mother Nature. The record was first teased with the release of the single “Where Were You When the Sky Opened Up” in March.
The opening track entitled “Prologue” is a recorded voice message to lead singer AJ Perdomo. This track sets the feel for the record, the need to rebuild lost connections and accept change. The transitions between “Prologue” and “Blind Ambitious” is created by a high-pitched harmonic guitar sound that acts like a nagging thought in the back of your head. A feeling that seems hard to escape. That feeling here with this record is the desire to go back to the familiar.
The record feels split into two parts. Part one focuses on themes of looking backwards while part two focuses on looking forward. These themes are split in the track “Starting Over/Slow Down”, which falls directly in the middle of the album’s track list. The song itself is two songs that together help care the theme of the record. These tracks were originally demos that as isolated tracks did not fit the vibe the band was aiming for with this record. However, when the tracks are put together into one song it shows the two sides of the record, making it a good fit to fall in the middle of the track list. A perfect centerpiece to really push the ideas and themes that flow through this record seamlessly.
Through this album we see the struggles of wanting to look back and to go back to what we know but also the realization that change is a good thing.
Mother Nature has the melancholy feel heard in their self-titled record, but with a mix of sounds heard in previous records. “Virginia” resembling sounds heard on War Paint and “Violent Red” with Golden Record. This record combines what worked on the self-titled record while also making nods to the bands past work. The bands comeback in 2017 showed listeners a new side of The Dangerous Summer, but at the same time keeping true to what worked the first time. Mother Nature shows how a band can evolve after many years through Perdomo’s raw lyrics coupled with a sound that is very different from The Dangerous Summer in the days of Reach for the Sun.
