Good Dog is the moniker of Suze Bear, a Lost Map regular , formerly one half of Tuff Love, and contributor to many of Pictish Trail and others’ recordings and live performances…
Aside from single ‘Floating’ /‘Bumblebee’, it’s the first solo material material in her own right, and is well worth a listen.
From opener acoustic track ‘Mirror/Parallel’ through the more upbeat and grinding ‘Worm’, there is great songwriting and singing, and playing…
Other great tracks are ‘Jury Duty’ which has a great strum and synth combination, an instrumental…and piano-led ‘March 28th’…
Some tracks are short (‘Finish Line’) and some are a bit longer, like ‘Secret Paint’, which has a great combination of instruments, and BM is struggling to find some comparisons, always a shit way of reviewing stuff anyway, but BM feels like she is peeling a bit off Good Dog’s soul here, it is so intimate.
‘Curtains’ and ‘Good Morning’ further cement this vibe, although the latter has more electronic sounds and is almost like a strict reminder not to get too messy!
Next up is ‘Bumblebee’ (great bass and bucolic outdoor sounds), wonky but great, another instrumental, then the gorgeous ‘Chamber’, one of the highlights of the record, the catchy guitars combination is… very catchy indeed!
And then there is the title track, quite spiky and all the better for it – there are echoes of various girl-band vocals and chords down the years, especially Throwing Muses and The Shop Assistants (to these ears anyway…)
Penultimate tune ‘Floating’ continues in this bent – some excellent guitar work and the chorus is sublime, and wistful, as if touching out for something better… great harmonies too.
Closer ‘Soul’ is low key and the heavily processed vocals give a mournful coda to the record – truly a great piece of work and of course BM would love to hear this stuff performed live – maybe in 2021…