Send "Dawn Landes " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pastemagazine |
 Let’s say you trust Brooklyn-via-Louisville singer/songwriter Dawn Landes when she says the title of her new album isn’t a nod to The Byrds’ 1968 country-rock classic. Fair enough—Roger McGuinn, Gram Parsons and company certainly weren’t the first, and Landes won’t be the last, to equate the ups and down of life and love to the tumult of a bareback ride.The real puzzler here is why she chose that title for the most restrained album of her already low-key career. Everything about it is even-keeled: From the synth-pumped admonishments of opening track “Young Girl” to the woozy, world-weary lamentation of “Wandering Eye” (her baby—hopefully not real-life husband Josh Ritter—has one, but she doesn’t seem to care), Landes knows where she’s headed at every turn. Given the wistful penultimate track, with its slow-pulling strings and shimmering flutes, that’s a place called Brighton—a dreamy land of “carousels and mirror lights / a music box that plays all night.” Still, the wooden equines of that merry-go-round are as close as she gets to a bucking bronco. Sweet Heart is beguiling, warm and wise, but it begs for a good kick in the ribs....full text |
| Clashmusic |
| It was going to be a struggle to top last year’s stellar ‘Fireproof’ album – but Dawn Landes has done it. ‘Sweet Heart Rodeo’ is pure quality; there is a sureness and maturity in the songwriting, and a lightness and poise in the delivery, that is utterly beguiling. ‘Wandering Eyes’ is a classic country pop song, while ‘Dance Area’ and ‘Clown’ are little campfire rhymes intent on piercing your heart. Landes even makes ‘Brighton’ sound mysterious in a swirl of Appalachian folk. Clocking in at less than 33 minutes to ensure your left gagging for more, ‘Sweet Heart Rodeo’ is a near faultless blend of Landes’ country roots and the urban savvy of her Brooklyn base. Effortlessly magnificent....full text |
| Soundsxp |
| Some artists are proud to wear their influences on their sleeve, and it’s probably fair to surmise from the title of Dawn Landes’ third album, that those sleeves are heavily embroidered. Ostensibly named after the Byrds album which saw new recruit Gram Parsons finally nudge them fully into the world of country-rock, it lasts an uncannily similar 32 minute running time. Although the brevity and name suggest the Byrds, a more apposite modern comparison would be Zooey Deschanel and M Ward’s She and Him collaboration. Not only is Landes’ voice often reminiscent of the extremely talented actor-cum-singer, but this record follows Deschanel’s lead in encompassing a merry mix of musical styles. Opener Young Girl is built on a insistent and driving keyboard riff, not unlike Metric, before recent single Romeo throws its cowboy hat into the ring on the back of some rather equine clippety-clop percussion. Clown and Wandering Eye both tell of philandering fools - the former over the kind of perky Bontempi beat that John Shuttleworth would be proud of, and the latter conjuring up the evocative image of Landes’ losing her man to a would-be groupie with “ponytail high, neckline low”....full text |
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