Man, it's been far too long since I've had the opportunity to review a CD before its release date. Sure, there was that whole Radiohead debacle, but that was different, everyone and their grandmother was listening to that one before it came out. This time I've got a new CD for you by a band you've never even heard of. And I hope I can give you a positive impression of Dakona before you get inundated with one of their radio singles to the point where you're sick of it.

Dakona is a four-piece rock band from Canada that, on the surface, sounds like an amalgamation of Nine Days, Matchbox 20, Tonic, Nickelback, and other bands of their ilk that you'd hear in constant rotation on any Top 40/Pop/Rock radio station. To leave the description at that would be unfair, though - while their label debut Perfect Change seems on the surface to offer no change at all from the same old radio-ready, mostly mid-tempo rock we're getting from those other bands, I'd have to say that they offer a deeper lyrical perspective than those other bands. Perhaps I'm not familiar enough with some of them beyond their singles, but I have to say like the overall vibe I'm getting from Dakona. Their willingness to deal with difficult human relationships doesn't just stop at the romantic ones. And while they're not the type of band you'd easily peg as a "Christian" band just from a quick listen, there is definitely a spiritual beacon shining throughout these songs that offers a lot of hope amidst the difficulty. That's always an encouraging thing to find within the lyrics of a rock band being groomed for mainstream success.

Okay, so I'm kind of avoiding the question here. Is Dakona a Christian band? My best guess at this point would be that they're going with the "Christians in a band" model. It's funny that they're signed to Maverick Records, which is home to Michelle Branch, one of the latest subjects of the "Are they or aren't they?" question that keeps most of us baffled, and having very little to go on in terms of interviews so far, I can't really tell you their whole philosophy on faith as presented through music. All I know is that what they have to say here should give a lot of Christians and non-Christians alike some food for thought. Even if you hate God or believe there is no such thing, you might just find something to latch onto here. Is that a satisfactory answer? (Of course not. There will never be one. So let's move right along...)

Now, let's pretend you've never heard any of the bands I've compared these guys to. In that case, the simplest way to describe their music would be the type of rock music that unfolds slowly, sometimes offering a definitive hook at the beginning of the song, but usually saving the most powerful punch for the middle. Electric guitars are prominent (the acoustic only takes precedence in a few places), and combined with Ryan McAllister's semi-gritty voice (which thankfully isn't another low-range Scott Stapp clone), the band manages to be rather engaging while not even pretending to do anything new. There's a certain amount of spit and shine that just makes this album work for me. It ain't quantum physics, but aside from a few points where the band's songs get harder to distinguish from one another, I don't really care. (And it's always possible that some of the seeming soundalikes may get dropped on the album's final release... though at this point I've become attached to enough of the 13 songs to home they don't do that.)

Waiting
Well, I made this bed I lay in
But I should have called the maid
Such a heavy-handed lover, such a shame...
I love how the record opens with the sound of a passing train that morphs into this song's guitar riff. Once it gets going, it sort of reminds me of that song "Heartbeat" by Bleach, except with a slightly slower tempo. When Ryan's voice is heard for the first time, he is found in a place of despair, mulling over some mistake he's made and realizing that it could have lingering consequences. His voice just aches with regret, but the song reads like a prayer, expressing a longing for God to make things new again. The chorus is a bit lightweight, but overall it's a solid song with a tight ending that shows these guys know how to set up a good transition between songs.

Revelation
If things were different, everything might work itself out fine
I'd like to see right through the windows in your mind...
The second track picks up with a muddier guitar riff and slower tempo that, for a brief second, makes me think of Blues Traveler's "Run Around". Unfortunately, this one doesn't quite have the character that "Run Around" has - it's a decent pop/rock song about being desperate for change, but it lacks a little in the strong hook department. This is one of many tracks that was re-recorded from their indie album Ordinary Heroes, and from the little I've heard, their overall sound is tighter at this point. Ryan gets off some interesting one liners here such as "indecision rising up like steam", but for the most part, I haven't really connected with this song.

Trampoline
She's only gonna jump, gonna reach
Gonna fly as high as her disbelief...
This is another redo of an older track that took me a few listens to really notice. It seems to be an attempt to set an abstract dream to music, and while the music doesn't really do anything surreal (it stays locked in a mid-tempo groove similar to the last song), the words are descriptive enough to be interesting when you're really paying attention. Basically the guy's lying on a trampoline in the middle of an orchard, and some guy is interrogating him about whether he believes in God, and why. I can't make much sense of it, but my guess is that it was Ryan's attempt to make sense of the dream, and if he doesn't fully understand it, neither will I. A few lines pertaining to faith and doubt come through rather clearly, though, and the programmed drums that pop in between the verse and chorus have an appropriate "bouncing" sound to them - it's little elements like that which help these songs to stand out.

Richest Man in the World
I could be ten years old
With a hole in my belly, no shoes on my soul
But I am here...
In a shocking move, this ironic rock anthem is over five minutes long, and yet it's been chosen as the first single to be released to Christian radio. It's one of those songs that has an interesting message behind it - one that will likely be missed by a lot of listeners. In each verse, Ryan ponders what his life would have been like if he were born as someone else, some poor starving child in Africa or whatever. He begins to feel that, by comparison, he is the richest man in the world, and this leads him to a declaration (likely to God) that he just wants all of the things he has to be used for good. The chorus will definitely catch listeners' attention - "Take my car, take my girl, I'm the richest man in the world." What an atrocious thing to say! It sounds like he's wanting to just get rid of those things (and yes, I realize a girl is not a possession, don't get on my case about it!) - rather, he seems to be giving them back to God and asking that they be used for a greater good than just his own selfish gain. I love the song's coda, which allows it to float away on a bed of drums and softly bouncing bass as Ryan repeatedly sings, "Could I just give it all away?"

Center of the World
I know there's one thing, one thing that scares me
It's that I tend to see myself in you...
This one starts as a ballad, but develops into a slow rocker by the time the chorus rolls around. (This approach is already starting to make the songs run together, and it's only track 5. I guess I have to give a few negative points for that.) It's more of a story song, an account of a day in the life of a very selfish girl who thinks that the world revolves around her, and isn't very kind to those around her who are in need. "She says she's got it, but she don't get it", Ryan asserts, explaining that she has all of this stuff and she isn't happy despite being the queen of her little universe. It makes for an interesting addition to the past song when you realize that this sort of misery is caused by an unwillingness to give oneself away. Unfortunately, another connection between is realized when once again, the band commits the songwriting faux pas of rhyming "girl" with "world". (A few more negative points.)

Good
Oh, she said, would you help me when the devil wins
Got my head filled up with the memories of everything
I can't never sleep, 'cause the shuffle of the feet
Always pounding in my brain like a hurricane, hurricane...
This is the first single to be released to mainstream radio, and it's a dandy. Building on a looping acoustic guitar riff and a gentle background vocal that croons "Yooooouuuuu looooooooook so gooooooood...", this song develops into a fun, loose-tongued lyrical exercise in the spirit of Nine Days or Everclear. Ryan uses a few repeated words to great effect, along with a punchy chorus of "I've got a lot to learn, baby, so please won't you teach me?" The song has improved greatly from its independent incarnation, since the drum loop is no longer the leading force behind the song, Ryan has tacked on an interesting final verse at the end, and he's gotten rid of that pesky f-word in the first verse. It's not quite on par with, say, "The Remedy" by Jason Mraz, but it's still bound to be one of the feel-good singles of the summer if the band is promoted right. You will hear it and like it.

Soul 4 Sale
She'll light the screen up with her skin
If you'll take her on that 15 minute spin...
This one's another strong rocker, a little punchier than tracks 2-5 were, that proceeds to put a sellout back in her place. While I suppose this song's title immediately gives away a cliché subject that has already inspired so many songs, I have to say it's still becoming one of my favorite tracks on the album, simply due to Ryan's lyrical phrasing and sarcastic tone, and the whole "15; minutes of fame" idea that keeps getting mentioned. I suppose it's a song that especially rings true in an age where any ditz or bozo can get onto a reality show and expose their dysfunctional life (or, more likely be pressured to make it look more dysfunctional than it really is) in order to be seen on TV or get their name published somewhere, whatever the case may be. I can't help but wonder at this point if the same girl is being described here who cropped up in "Trampoline" and "Center of the World"... her whole attitude of wanting to "be where you can see" seems to fit with the selfish and shallow person who was previously described.

Untouchable
I thought I knew you 'til I put my life in your hands
And now you're sorry, and you should be
'Cause you were wrong...
Another ballad-like song appears here, fading in with some dreamy, echoing effects before Ryan's voice upsets the mood by deadpanning the words "I thought I knew you 'til you came around with a gun in your hands." The song becomes a very emotional one as it unfolds, and Ryan seems to be singing from the point of view of someone who has passed away when he bitterly sings "You can't touch me, I'm untouchable." I'm not sure if that's what the song is actually about, but whatever role he's playing here, it's definitely the role of someone who was hurt badly by someone they thought loved them.

Trust
Seventeen, we were too young
To be worried about the future
To be thinking about the consequence of fun, it's just fun...
This one has a weird, slightly muted guitar intro that almost makes me expect a song in 6/8 time, but it conveniently rights itself and plows ahead in 4/4. It's a medium-to-fast rock number - at this point it's getting very difficult to find enough to make each song stand apart from its surroundings. The subject matter here seems almost painfully autobiographical, as Ryan looks back on a time in his life when he had his innocence and then lost it. It almost sounds like he slept with a girl and now the couple is regretting what they've done, and it's caused tension between them because they've had to grow up quickly. All he wants is for the two of them to be able to learn to trust each other again.

Beautiful Thing
Everybody sings the blues sometimes
Everybody gets the bends
Everybody takes a knife sometimes
In the back from one of your friends...
I like that the main guitar riff to this song has a hint of "twang" to it. A little more folk/country influence might actually help this band to stand out a little more. This seems to be a more straightforward song of devotion to someone whose love and trust is a "beautiful thing", and perhaps it's one of the songs on the album that refers to God directly. The verses are interesting in that they set up a dichotomy, talking about people who suffer at the hand of those who would call the song's subject a friend - perhaps he's referring to hypocritical Christians here? Hard to say, and listeners are likely to get this song confused with "Trust" when the line "Your trust is a beautiful thing" comes around, but it's still not a bad track.

Revolving
A thousand days you said "Forever and ever"
But ever's at an end, this bitter end...
This one starts off very dark and quiet - once again, Ryan seems to be in bitter mode. He's addressing someone who didn't have the courage to stick around - even though that person's gone now, he still finds that the person consumes his thoughts and he can't get over them. It sounded to me like this song was about an absentee parent at first, but some more recent stuff I read about the band indicated that this song is really about being stuck in an unhealthy romantic relationship and not having the guts to let go. Surprisingly (given the quiet intro), it turns out to be one of the more potent rockers in the album. And I love the line "Instead I will hang like a cheap chandelier over you."

In God's Name
With your hand on a Bible, you say you killed a killing man
Well, Mister, what does that make you?
The acoustic guitar that dominates this song is a breath of fresh air at this point - the wall-to-wall medium-speed electric songs really bleed together in the back half of this album. This sparse ballad is a show-stopping tune if I've ever heard one - Ryan proceeds to describe acts of hatred being committed by supposed people of faith. Somehow, I knew ahead of time from the title that the song would be about that, and yet being able to predict the meaning didn't lessen the impact. The chorus is just chilling when Ryan slowly intones, "And it's all in the name of God." A number of other bands might use such scenarios to set up an attack on organized religion, but Dakona is wise in separating the belief system from the actions of those who believe it here, and the song ends with a stern reprimand - "If you wanna hate, then please love God alone". In other words, don't sully the reputation of a religion that believes in a loving God when you hate your fellow human being. Powerful stuff.

Perfect Change
Hey, please knock me down, back down to my feet
So I don't take for granted this beautiful place...
The title track appears here to close out the album, and it's got a refreshing synthesized guitar backdrop to it... something reminiscent of 80's arena rock in a way that I can't quite put my finger on. Here the band comes together to give us a satisfying summary of what the album is all about... redeeming change that comes through loss. Throughout the record, tales have been told of relationships gone awry due to selfishness, of fame and ideas and physical substance being emphasized over love. And finally, as this song's chorus celebrates a God who loves by taking the things away that hurt us, it all comes full circle. It's a pensive number that happens to rock as well.

While the music isn't nearly as varied as those looking for a creative new rock band would hope for, I definitely think Dakona has real strength in the songwriting department - they're able to handle the painful ways that we all hurt each other and ourselves carefully, writing songs that grab the listener because the listener is able to relate. And yet this doesn't feel like an appeal to the lowest common denominator. It feels like snippets of a personal story, in much the same way a Matchbox 20 album would feel that way, except with a timely moral to the story. If they could add a little more musical diversity to spice things up, their next album might just be a real winner. But for now, we've got a commendable debut worth picking up when it finally releases on September 9 (it was originally slated to come out on July 15).

(Just make sure, if you pay for this album with a $20 bill, that the cashier gives you the Perfect Change.)

ALBUM WORTH:
Waiting $1.50
Revelation $.50
Trampoline $.50
Richest Man in the World $2
Center of the World $.50
Good (I've Got a Lot to Learn) $2
Soul 4 Sale $2
Untouchable $1.50
Trust $1
Beautiful Thing $1
Revolving $1
In God's Name $2
Perfect Change $1.50
TOTAL: $17

Band Members:
Ryan McAllister: Vocals, guitars
Brooke Winstanley: Guitars
Shane Dueck: Bass
John Biondolillo: Drums

Website: http://www.dakona.ca

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving