'A Tear In The Fabric' Review: Devon Williams crafts meaningful pop melodies and questions his identity & purpose
Devon Williams is a talented melodic shapeshifter when it comes to the world of music. The prolific Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter first made waves as a teenager while honing his craft with the cult punk band Osker, before moving on to a disparate array of bands and soundscapes. After Osker, Williams went on to play indie-folk with Fingers Cut Megamachine, indie-pop with Lavender Diamond & noise pop with the Champagne Socialists.
Along the way, he also recorded three solo albums that consolidated his trademark blend of power pop, folk-rock, and jangle pop, each showcasing his distinctive ear for a pop melody.
After a six-year hiatus, Devon Williams will be releasing his fourth studio album, 'A Tear In The Fabric' on May 1. The 12 tracks on this album are lush, heartfelt songs that chronicle everything from confusion to clarity, brimming with hooky gems, honest songwriting, and luscious pop sensibilities. It’s another step higher on the discography ladder that is already reinforced by the rungs crafted from 2008’s 'Carefree', 2011’s 'Euphoria', and 2014’s 'Gilding the Lily'.
The lost years since his '80s pop venture 'Gilding the Lily' released were defined by a series of life-shattering events for Devon Williams. His father passed away in 2019 and his baby daughter was born four years ago, prompting a dramatic paradigm shift in how Devon Williams viewed his adult life. Adrift and full of conflicting feelings about what the future held for him, Williams grappled with his identity and purpose while creating this new batch of songs.
The resulting songs on 'A Tear In The Fabric' are a series of vivid snapshots for Williams: questions asked, answers given & compromises reached, in spite of second-guessing himself throughout the process. It's only fitting that the irreversible change that life had wreaked - creating tears in the fabric of his day-to-day life - would serve to give his fourth studio album its title.
The sparkling and jangly 'Followed Me Back' talks about the bad omens that have plagued him through the years, in spite of him laughing at his fears and wondering how much more of this he could take. Spacey, reverberant guitars and echoing lines tumble and cascade upon our ears toward the end of the song, cementing the drowning feeling that Devon has artfully articulated.
The title track 'A Tear In The Fabric' talks about the lingering feeling of dissatisfaction that Devon feels now that his life is decidedly out of whack. "You want to disappear, you've got that look on your face / There's only so much you can do when that person isn't you / Too late now to start all over / One more night against this empty feeling / A tear in the fabric." It's a sweeping and lush track, offset by the tense and grave mood of the lyrics themselves.
On 'In Babylon', he enters the realm of fantasy and escapism, enhanced by chorus-drenched guitars & the mythology of Babylon in this '80s pop callback. "It’s hard to trust the imaginary / Second guessing a dream / You don’t know what you are anymore / Is there a perfect world in the normal life?" he plaintively asks, almost uncertain of the answer himself.
The chugging, 'Out Of Time' talks about the inevitable passage of time and the mundane events of life as they pile up, leaving Williams pondering his mortality, wondering if there is some grander scheme or meaning to it all. "Right and wrong, it's never considered / Refuse to buy the truth, I wonder if it matters / We're out of time / No final hours."
In the laidback and mellow 'Domesticated', Williams talks about the balancing act he plays out at home with his wife and family, and how he's traded one life for the domestic life he now leads. “I’m under your skin, is this the price of forever? / I don’t mind if you just do what you like / I find it hard to re-adjust this tug of war / Is it part of the role? / Well, if it is, I can play.” There's a lovely saxophone solo that further reinforces his knowledge that he's made the right choice in spite of losing touch with his former hedonistic self.
'Deadly Turn' sees Devon soften up on this sparkling track, as he takes stock of his life, weighing the pros versus the cons, but still looking for pieces of the puzzle. "Deadly turn, all this trouble / Turn to you, all is right now."
The soaring 'For My Memory To Collect' sees Devon wax nostalgic over a string section and his need to set things right, as he goes over mental snapshots of things that have stayed with him through the years and caused his heart to despair.
'Snake In The Grass' has Devon making a more positive statement as he strives to put some distance between his current optimistic life and his venomous memories. "It's coming again / I saw it and I listened and I heard / But you only want one thing / It's a long way from the past / Snake in the grass."
The gorgeous 'Borderline' sees Devon faces his fears and delusions head-on while making a resolute decision to never give in to them - "The fear is getting stronger / All illusions in my mind / My reflection's in the water / The more I test them, they're no longer there / But checking doesn't matter / On the borderline / I hope to never cross it."
The picturesque and glowing 'Slow Motion' again has Devon Williams holding onto his idyllic dreams while questioning if those dreams are just perhaps a pure fantasy. "I wonder when you smile if it's real at all / I feel I'm treading water / Slow motion."
As for the peppy yet somber 'Circus World', Williams admitted in press materials - "It’s sort of a tightrope between being lost in thought and then just floating through the world without looking for meaning. ‘Circus World’ is just feeling like everything is absurd, and finding the humor in it makes it a little more palatable. Am I a joke for always trying to find humor in the world? Or is the world full of clowns? Really, it’s tough to decide when the joke has gone too far."
For the closing and dreamy track 'Peace Now?' Devon Williams finally lays his aching demons to rest - "If I just let it go / I don't need answers / And optimism is sometimes impossible to connect / I go back and forth chasing a miracle / Push the issue, stop digging deeper / How much there is left to uncover?" Although he still hasn't found all the answers, Devon Williams acknowledges that he is still changing and growing, and maybe that is enough for now.
The addition of his young daughter's voice as a sample shows that Devon has now realized that the real answers to life's conundrum had been there in front of him all along.
In spite of these 12 songs sounding like lush, well-produced pop classics geared for commercial consumption, they are actually intensely personal and sincere, an outpouring of Devon's emotional and vulnerable state of mind as he looks for meaning and melody in a variety of touching, introspective ways. This is a brave and brooding new album done in luxurious style - it captures vivid vignettes of introspective soul searching in a completely compelling, timeless light.