While earlier Dreamend albums were more of the dynamic post-rock variety, Ryan Graveface took a lo-fi psych-folk approach for 2010's So I Ate Myself, Bite by Bite. In contrast to the vocoder and synth of Black Moth Super Rainbow, his vocals swirl around a washed organic blanket made of banjo, organs, pedal steel, and acoustic guitar. The warm backing tracksbalance out the dark lyrical content, which takes inspiration from a serial killer's journal and spreads Talking Heads'quot;Psycho Killerquot; concept over a full album. Luckily, the album isn't that ominous at face value. In fact, you could easily end up packing this for a picnic with a loved one if you didn't listen carefully first. Dig a little deeper behind the sun-soaked choruses and you find some obsessive undertones, similar to the narrative quot;I'll be watching youquot; voice in the Police's quot;Every Breath You Take.quot; in the same way that Sting pulled the wool over the eyes of wedding DJs around the world, Graveface manages to sing lines about committing a heinous crime and hiding the evidence without ever sounding the slightest bit sinister. Quirky, maybe. Perhaps even cute, from a distance. The majority of the tracks are peppy, gingerbread sweet, and concise tunes. All hang right around the three-minute mark, with the exception of the long, cricket-filled opener, quot;Pink Clouds in the Woods,quot; and the super psych-soaked ten-minute finale, quot;An Admission.quot; Both are good bookends to a great album. Just don't play it for the kids.
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