Appearances

Personnel: Kristofer Åström, Therese Johannson (vocals); Anne de Wolff (strings); Martin Wenk (horns, vibraphone); Dirk Darmstaedter.
With Appearances, a solo album under the Me and Cassity moniker, German singer/songwriter Dirk Darmstaedter offers ten more tracks of the kind of freewheeling Dylan-influenced alt-contemporary songs that have made up his long-running career. Somewhere between coffee-shop fare and the uplifting mainstream pop on any given late-'90s major motion picture soundtrack, you know what you're getting into from the first strains of album opener "Time to Put the Hammer Down." The sound is clean, compressed, and sparkling with sentimentality and wonderstruck romanticism. Given Darmstaedter's active participation in the alternative movement of the '90s leading German alterna-teens the Jeremy Days, his style seems to be a force of habit more than borrowed nostalgia. Hints of solo Paul Westerberg or Soul Asylum-style radio-friendly singles circa 1996 come through on almost every song. Colorful brass and string arrangements could draw similarities to some of his contemporaries like Sondre Lerche and Badly Drawn Boy. "Stupid World" makes the most of these arrangements, augmenting banjo and Farfisa interjections with a climactic Beach Boys-style harmony chorus ending. "This Side of Tomorrow" wears the Dylan influence a little more on the sleeve, butting pseudo-snarled verses with soaring choruses mirroring Darmstaedter's voice with that of Swedish chanteuse Therese Johannson. Johannson shows up in a similar role on several songs, adding harmony to the wistful trumpet-pop waltz of "Fred Astaire" and the jaunty "The Last Troubadour." ~ Fred Thomas