Ida Mae dropped their sophomore album, Click Click Domino, this past Friday and to say I’m obsessed would be an understatement. I haven’t been able to turn this record off – it’s a masterpiece from front to back.
Every track sounds wildly different than the one that came before it, yet the album still feels like a cohesive unit – it still feels like Ida Mae. It’s almost impossible for me to choose a favorite track; that’s how good this record is. Once I think I’ve picked one, I listen to the entire record again and pick up on something in a song that I hadn’t noticed before, and my whole perspective changes.
Born out of the backseat of a car whilst traveling the road with the likes of Greta Van Fleet and Marcus King, among others, Click Click Domino delivers one of my all-time favorite musical techniques: the blending of the old and the new. Ida Mae mix sounds from vintage American instruments (some instruments being over 100 years old) with modern sounds you might find in today’s rock and pop music in such a brilliant way that you’ll wonder why all musicians don’t do this same thing.
Within this blend of the old and the new, Ida Mae embrace a wide variety of sounds, perhaps the thing I love most about them, with some songs embodying a folkier, bordering on bluegrass feel with their use of banjo and mandolin (see “Road to Avalon” and “Raining for You”), some songs embracing their blues roots (see “Mountain Lion Blues”), and other songs taking the listener in the direction of hard hitting rock ‘n’ roll (see “Long Gone and Heartworn” and “Click Click Domino”).
Speaking of Greta Van Fleet and Marcus King, Ida Mae have some talented guitar-playing friends that joined them on Click Click Domino, with Marcus King joining them for two tracks (“Click Click Domino” and “Deep River”) and Jake Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet joining them on one (“Long Gone and Heartworn”). These three tracks are highlights for me, and not just because they’re arguably the three most hard-hitting rock songs on the record, but because they accomplish what so many musical collaborations haven’t.
History has shown us that getting too much talent in a room or on a stage can often be detrimental to the final product, but that is absolutely NOT the case here. Listening to these tracks, there’s a clear balance of skill and ideas, and you can hear the influence of the guest players without it being overpowering. Marcus King and Jake Kiszka don’t upstage, but instead play as though they’re equal members of Ida Mae, and all together, the end result sounds as if they’ve been making music together for decades.
As much as I love to rock, the ballads of Click Click Domino stand out to me especially, as this is where Chris Turpin delivers some of his most beautiful, Jeff Buckley-esque vocals (particularly on “Calico Coming Down” and “Line on the Page”). This is also where I feel that Turpin and Stephanie Jean’s harmonies especially shine, as their vocals seem to be more in the forefront where there’s less room for error. It’s proof to me that these two were meant to make music together.
On first listen, you might miss it, but Click Click Domino is far more than just a pioneer record when it comes to instrumentation, it’s also very impressive lyrically. Click Click Domino is cinematic, romantic, heartbreaking, invigorating, thought-provoking, and many more adjectives that I’m sure you’d prefer not to have to read.
The album itself functions, I think, as an opportunity to step back from the stress of our technology-filled world and the uncertainty of the past year and a half, a break from the disconnection that can occur as the result of social media, and allows the listener to explore the album’s themes through a unique part-vintage, part-modern lens and to reconnect on a deeper level with their emotions, something that we so often neglect to do. While the instrumentation is complex and unique, there’s still a simplicity to these songs that’s quite alluring, and I find myself continuously going back for taste after taste.
With the Covid-19 pandemic and the current political climate, Click Click Domino comes at a unique time, and as a result, songs that may have meant one thing to their authors when they were written can now take on a multitude of meanings. As time goes on and as the world changes, so will these songs, resulting in a record that’s going to continue to be relevant in the years to come and will stand the test of time.
Go on, give it a listen and see what you think. No doubt you’ll find some songs that you just can’t get out of your head, and you may even add a couple to your “Favorite Songs of All-Time List.” I know I have. As for me, if you forced me to answer, my current favorites are “Long Gone and Heartworn” and “Has My Midnight Begun,” but if you asked me that same question tomorrow, my answer just might change – the sign of a truly great record.