Written by: Alex Green

Bringing to mind W. H. Auden’s urging that “…the shining light be comprehended by the darkness,” William Duke’s The Dark Beautiful Sun perfectly captures how necessary it is for oppositional elements to explain each other to themselves: Comedy and tragedy, good and evil, and of course, the darkness and the light.

Duke is in a Master Class of musical craftsmen and his work brings to mind everyone from Neil Finn to Alex Chilton. When it comes to writing a pop song, Duke knows how to take the corners, he knows how to jump the fences and he knows how to glide in and out of a chorus so that you never see it coming and you’ll miss it as soon as it’s gone.

He’s that good.

Duke’s The Dark Beautiful Sun is a sprawling, colossal work that’s redolent with intelligence, sensitivity and grace. It tells stories, and it examines emotions and it does so with wisdom, mercy and heart.

The breezy “The Golden Ring” has a wicked storyline taken straight out of “Body Heat”; the jangling “Sons And Daughters” is an instant classic and “Many Years Away” sounds like Dylan by way of Teenage Fanclub. Later, “The Truth Comes Out At Night” is an acoustic psychedelic ballad that’s buoyed by an addictive percussive backbeat; “The Great Escape” could have fit anywhere on The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo album and “Summer Side Of Life” is a perfect homage to the everclear forever days of an endless summer.

But it’s the album closing “Your Laughter Fills The Room” that’s the real highlight here. A wistful and bittersweet number that captures the heartbreak of memory and the sting of nostalgia, the song is punctuated by soul crushing harmonies and an aching sense of true longing.

Masterfully done, sir.