Although the larger portion of Darryl Blood’s recent work has been instrumental—from soundtracks to gallery installations to his recent album, Parse (reviewed here on Ball of Wax!)—he has released a number of albums as a singer-songwriter and been a member of several acts (Tiltmaster, Hail Citizen, and ’90s Boston “no-wave” outfit Turkish Delight) wherein his vocal abilities were featured to some degree. In that respect, his song “Can’t Say It” from the new volume of Ball of Wax should come as no surprise . . . and yet it does.
Rolling along on some shiny 4/4 percussion, “Can’t Say It” boasts an arrangement that gives equal attention to each instrument in the mix (but the piano figures steal the show, from melodic accompaniment to straight-eight staccato chord forms to the tastiest trills you’re likely to hear) and showcasing Blood’s skills as a singer-songwriter. The biggest surprise here isn’t the song’s traditional structure, breezy sound, or homage to ’70s Laurel Canyon—it’s the subject matter. In less than five minutes, Blood delivers sunny pop cloaked in atypical metaphors that don’t try very hard to disguise the fact that this is a love song, albeit a “strange kind,” as attested in the song’s lyrical hook.
“Can’t Say It” is a maddening reminder of just how far modern pop music has strayed from the poetic wordplay and organic presentation that once defined it, but it’s also a welcome ode to those qualities from an artist who has built his career on left-turns and a refusal to settle into the norm.