Devon Williams - Sufferer

Over the last few years, Los Angeles-based musician DevonWilliams has worked with folk / performance band LavenderDiamond, played with up-and-coming power-pop sensationsThe Champagne Socialists, and developed and recorded hisown baroque pop songs under his own name. Ably abetted byfriends Allen Bleye and Greg Arnold, Williams spent a yearand a half painstakingly piecing together a beautiful, coherentset of songs to form one unique album.The fruit of this labor was the brilliant album Carefree, releasedin 2008 on Ba Da Bing. Demonstrating a knack for craftingtimeless pop that s equal parts Brill Building and TopangaCanyon, Williams hearkens back to great songwriters like Nilsson,Chilton, Downes, and Westerberg. Buoyed by wall-of-soundproduction, economical arrangements, and a wealth of 12-stringjangle, Carefree is a perfect pop record in the truest sense, a recordbursting with melody that rewards repeated listens.On this excellent new single, a taster for his upcoming Slumberlandalbum, Sufferer adds a bit of new wave flavor tothe mix, the chorused and reverb-laden guitars reminiscent ofmid-period Cure or even Teardrop Explodes. The tune is anotherfuture Williams classic, instantly memorable and charmingwith its driving elegance. Who Cares About Forever alsoimpresses, a slow-dance simmer with a wonderful melody andsoaring, spare guitar jangle. Both songs reinforce Williams statusas one of Slumberland s finest song-writers and arrangers,and are ample evidence that his next album will be somethingquite special indeed.

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