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Good friends can often go months or years without talking and begin their conversation again right where they stopped like no time has passed at all. Bill Mallonee's Dear Life is an experience--a conversation--like that. After over a decade of prolific and personal releases, Mallonee offers up his most recent pressing as a continuation of the conversation he's been having with his faithful listeners that entire time. In fact it's those hard core grassroots followers that, in part, made this release happen. Pre-sales of _Dear Life_ financed the making of this CD, and that fact is not lost on Mallonee, who goes out his way to thank the faithful in the liner notes as well as during the very first song.

More country than anything else in the both the Vigilantes of Love or Bill Mallonee catalogue to date, _Dear Life_ sounds much like the slower songs on _Audible Sigh_ or the material released on _To the Roof of the Sky_ and the UK EP _Cross the Big Pond,_ but gone are the gritty alt.country garage rock tunes that were the hallmark of that era. Also gone, with the exception of "Carol Merrill," is the brit-pop influence found on the ill-fated _Perfumed Letter._ Backed by the very capable Jake Bradley, along with lush additions by John Keane (most notably on pedal steel--who also recorded and mixed the project) the musicianship, arrangements, and recording quality are top notch.

"After All This Dust Settles Down," which could easily be the soundtrack of the past year of Mallonee's professional life, opens the album and is a good prelude for things to come on the following 10 tracks. "You cut yourself on dreams / it's broken glass ya can't quite escape / so you gather up the shards / and sprinkle them on magnetic tape" he sings in the bridge giving the listener a sense of what is on this CD: blood, lost dreams, love, longing, hope, desperation, a sorting out of what really matters and hanging on for dear life. He later echoes that thought by singing "I could pretend I never felt a thing / hey when your bleedin' you just keep singin'" (from "Chameleon Me").

No matter what the musical style the lyrics are, what sets Mallonee apart and Dear Life has the poetic punch expected of this gifted writer. The imagery in Mallonee's writing tends to reoccur, and woven through these tracks are references, revisits, and rewrites of many of the themes Mallonee routinely explores. It is this fact, for the hard core fan, that gives the CD a feeling of a continued conversation with an old friend.

"Where the Light Does Fall" harkens back to the moonlight image often used by Mallonee, beginning with "Watching the Moonlight" on his first CD Jugular, continued with "Solar System," and used often on his most recent Paste releases. In "Carol Merrill" he sings "and her skin was satin / but I've never been more aware / of that wound / as the fabric tears" which makes the seasoned listener question if this is a new perspective on the "Cloth of Life" sung about before. "Who Will You Love?" brings to mind the former gems "Crescent Moon" and "Silver Transparent." "The Kids on Drugz" is an exquisite song about wanting to discuss the reality of life with your children as they begin their adult lives and touches on the theme of suburban despair (as does "Ready and Red-Eye") in a similar way to "Punk Rocks Dead" (a long time concert favorite that I hope makes the light of day on a CD soon).

"I Will Never Be Normal" has many great lines on which to ruminate. The lines on darkness recall the words of John 3:19. "But hey, there are drugs to help you see God / and there are drugs for when depressed / and there are drugs that make you harder still / for when you are undressed . . . now, everyone's a junkie / and since daylights such a pain / we're all looking for some darkness / to stick into our veins" is just a sample. "I Will Miss You Girl" begins with a line comfortably in the Gospel tradition and then mixes the deliverance of God and Mallonee's wife in a way that is truly the lyricist's alone. Many of the songs on _Dear Life_ touch on his husbandly love, but this track truly shines in its tenderness. The final track, after a short pause, "Songwriter" is a painfully honest confessional track that ends the album with tissue thin vulnerability and crystal clear transparency that Mallonee has ended records on before, remember "Judas Kiss" on Slow Dark Train or the reprise of "Locket Full of Moonlight"?

So the conversation continues between Mallonee and the listener. Don't confuse the re-emergence of images from past records as weak re-hash, but rather a brilliant re-examination of the topics brought up before. The long time fan will greet this release with open arms and smile warmly as they reenter the conversation of an old friend. Those new to Mallonee's work have a fine chance to see him at his lyrical best and possibly musically the most broadly appealing of his career. In the end this is an honest truthful conversation/confession about life, not the storybook life of radio rock or new country, but the real life we all lead; after all, "isn't life the truest art?"

Joel Kiekintveld   July 31, 2004

After a three album flirtation with British pop stylings, Dear Life marks a return, of sorts, to the alt country sounds Bill Mallonee was once known for.  While it should not be mistaken for “Son of Audible Sigh,” there is more of a country feel to several of the songs here, particularly in Jake Bradley’s guitar tones, which resemble nothing more than Johnny Cash’s sound.

Mallonee has had a well-documented career of ups and downs, plateaus and valleys, with record companies, a plethora of band members coming and going, and a Neil Young-type approach that prevents him form being stuck into one category of music.  That history influence some of the tunes on Dear Life, where there is a sense of melancholy mixed with hope.

“After All This Dust Settles Down” sums up Mallonee’s career to date. It mentions the trials of his career, his need for a good wife to stand beside him, the songs, and the fans who became willing patrons in financing this album.  “Where the Light Does Fall” is a plea for us to find the good within us, and perhaps to catch a glimpse of what God sees in us.  “High…and Lonesome” is a contradiction that exists in most people, a craving for recognition, while realizing it isn’t what truly matters.  “Who Will You Love?” and “The Kidz on Drugs(Or Life)” celebrate (and mourn) the different areas of life where people try to find their peace.  Both deal somewhat with attempting to mature and forget the past as well.  

“I Will Never Be Normal (After This)” is a song that parallels true love on earth with the love of God, and how relying on both cuts through the burdensome periods of life.   “I Will Miss You Girl” depicts a man contemplating his own death, ready to see God but ruing the time he will not have with his love.  “Songwriter (Numb)” should be seen as a self-examination, an essay about the past, the present, and dealing with loss and failure.  It may be Mallonee’s most introspective song to date.

Dear Life is almost the album I was hoping for.  Mallonee seemingly has fallen in love with the falsetto, and at times in his weakest point vocally (especially on “Who Will You Love?,” but thankfully, it is less present here than his last two releases.  “Ready and Red-Eye” strikes me as a song title that was too convenient, and was written because he fell in love with the phrase.  Not an egregious crime, but not one of the stronger tunes here either.  “Carol Merrill,” concerning a boyhood crush on the Let’s Make a Deal sidekick, fares slightly better, but feels like an outtake that doesn’t fit with the rest of the disc.

Bill Mallonee is an amazing songwriter, who has the ability to open a vein and let us see the pain and the angst that goes into his writing.  After 18 projects, and hundreds of songs, one wishes he could find commercial success.  It pains me to say that Dear Life, while a good album, will not be the catapult to security, especially when viewed in the light of albums like Blister Soul, Audible Sigh, and Summershine.  A near miss.

Brian A. Smith
14 August 2004