Dean Ford
Deaf. Dumb. In Love.
self-released
Click to hear: “Come on Say”
Dean Ford dwells in the power-pop pocket of Portland’s music scene inhabited by Spencer Albee and former Leftover Kurt Baker, both of whom play on this six-track EP. If you like the sunny, bouncy rock Albee cranks out or the punkier pop Baker has mastered, you’ll like Ford’s music, too.
No surprises here, just straight-ahead power-chord paeans to pretty girls. Ford’s got a good voice and his ad hoc backing band does a nice, workmanlike job. Irony? No. Handclaps? You betcha.
Jaded hipsters justifiably skoff at this kind of clean-cut, radio-ready product. It’s soulless, though not charmless. The easy-breezy “Come on Say,” lifted by Albee’s burbling keys, is probably the catchiest number here, and rockier tracks like “If You Want It” and “Too Familiar” will sound great at 70 m.p.h. with the windows down this summer.
Ford and Baker teamed up last year in a group they called The Goodnight Process. Before that short-lived project said goodnight for good, they played a mini-tour of three Hot Topic stores around Maine. Does that fact make them bad people? No. Are we living in the End Times? You betcha.
— Chris Busby
Deaf. Dumb. In Love. is scheduled to be released on March 15. For more on Ford, visit facebook.com/deanfordmusic.
