Reviewing "Second Dinner"

Checking out the new album from indie folk artist Slimdan.

Like so many artists these days, Slimdan’s breakout came on Tiktok. But while the LA songwriter’s quippy lyrics lend themselves well to brief clips, he isn’t best consumed in 20-second increments. The actual songs are much better, thoroughly considered and full-bodied narrative statements. His debut album, Second Dinner, came out a few weeks ago, and it’s a big step forward.

I’d rather name reference points than burden him with a genre. There’s the easygoing dad-rock Wilco tendencies, a big Beatles influence channeled through the late Elliott Smith, and some of the goofy wordplay of Dan Reeder. I hear Mt. Joy, too, and Fleet Foxes, and a whole lot of Pinegrove. If I was writing the Spotify algo code, I would tag it Hopeful-Midwestern-Emo-Folk-Rock.

It’s always tricky to determine where autobiography begins and fiction ends, but these are deeply personal songs, from a singular point of view. Take “Weinerschnitzel,” which is basically a Midwestern Emo song about being a religious Jewish kid eating a hot dog for the first time. It’s about as comical as it sounds, and includes the lyrics “I pointed that weiner straight at my face.” But it’s a searching, serious song too, one that considers the consequences of free will. This is sort of his thing, I think - the ability to flip from wry to somber in the span of a few words.

While “Wienerschnitzel” has its strong points, the album is best when Slimdan leans hard into his sentimental tendencies and leaves the laughs behind. “Celebrity Lookalikes” is a beautiful, slow-moving song about being in love on vacation, and “Wimbledon White” is an upbeat indie rock banger about getting over yourself to marry the woman you love. These songs should be too sappy, but they're not; the music and the writing is simply too strong to let them feel unessential or tired.

But the strongest track on the album is “Drank On Accurate,” a very strange and arresting song. Sonically it reminds me of “Wimbledon White,” although there’s more flourishes in the production, including a great guitar solo. You get way drunker on Accutane, so the title is an explanation - or excuse - for bad behavior. But the actual song is a lacerating self-examination that pulls no punches.

We lost our innocence in the back of a Lexus

You bring back images I locked away, and

We were friends only at your expense

I hate myself, that's how I was back then

//

You show me empathy, but you know the worst in me

I look back on 17 with just regrets

And honestly, it's written all on my face

All my apologies come from a selfish place

He starts off in-situ, remembering his first time. But he’s stuck in the present, feeling guilty, hating himself. Apologizing and invalidating his apology in the same breath. Cheeks going red, regrets being had.

I smoke a Camel Crush outside of the tour bus

Take in the nostalgia and fiberglass

'Til I'm right back, back at Leora's place

I'm choking on words that I cannot unsay

This is the best writing on the album, and some of the most incisive you’ll hear all year. In two lines and fourteen words, an entire scene has been conjured. Outside of the tour bus, smoking a cigarette, the other details come rushing into your mind: hot asphalt, the smell of gasoline being pumped, the too-bright sun in your eyes. Just as soon as you’re there, though, he rips you back into the past, and puts you back at an old friend’s house, in a painful moment. Choking on things you said and wish you didn’t.

Great songwriters have a knack for making you feel as though you understand everything about their lives, even though their word count is so limited by the form. Classic examples for me include “Famous Blue Raincoat” by Leonard Cohen and “Songs That She Sang In The Shower” by Jason Isbell. Those two artists are sacred cows for me, but this song isn’t far off.

'Cause if I think I'll make it up, I'm already late

I thought I buried him, but you still see his face

And you could say that you moved on, and I should do the same

You don't need me to explain, but he drank on Accutane

There’s an appealing ambiguity to this song. You have a narrator apologizing, but also giving an excuse for his actions, but also saying that’s not an excuse - but why mention it in the first place? This vortex of shame, embarrassment and ego is truly universal, and it plays to great effect here.

Another standout is “Personal Jinx” - a fingerpicking country folk song about making up with your partner that has a a clever, wistful melody. And “Undercover Cops” is a groovy slow burner about growing up.

Slimdan’s background as a professional pop songwriter for other artists comes through here, even in this “country” song: he loves a smooth chorus, and the production and mixing is crisp and thoughtful. I would be fascinated to hear a Teen Suicide-Style lo-fi recording of “Personal Jinx”, and it would also be interesting to hear him do a revved-up emo version of “Wimbledon White.”

Like many young artists with talent coming out of their ears, Slimdan is a little chameleonic for now. One gets the sense that he is trying on different musical hats (within a range). This is a generative approach, and the right call for his first album. But it’ll be interesting to see if he has a “Carrie & Lowell” in him, something more uniform in style, theme and lyrical approach that allows him to sharpen his ideas and burrow to the core of the Slimdan creative thesis. I suspect he does, although I don’t know what it’ll sound like. Based on his first album, I suspect it’ll sound very good.