3b Lab S Ballade Best CD - Import

With Vicious Waltz, Dunn consciously makes an impressive (and successful) effort to include a large cast of performers he's worked with since relocating from Austin, Texas to New York City in 2001. Among them, Lara Ewen's half of 'Ten Dollar Ring''s vocal duet and Jeremy Goldsmith's lead guitar on 'Silver Line' and "The Ghost Of Abe Lincoln" add a delightful variety to the album's instrumental brilliance. Dunn has contemplated bringing piano into his own songs for years, and Misty Boyce does a phenomenal job of incorporating just the right parts into each song she plays.

Boyce's tasteful lilts throughout "Ten Dollar Ring" create a late-night saloon vibe, giving the song a bottom-of-the-glass bluesy confessional feel that help expose the characters' rawest emotions. Then, taking several stylistic sharp turns, her piano amps-up the old-timey swing of "The Ghost Of Abe Lincoln" and then adds a beautiful depth to the travelogue/dedicatorial, "You, South Dakota." Still, similar to the rest of Bryan Dunn's repertoire, Vicious Waltz's greatest strength lies in his keen ability to write poppy, melodically pleasing narratives that hold listeners' attention throughout an entire album.

Dunn crafts carefully worded, succinct phrases to simultaneously paint visual pictures and convey entire spectra of emotions. "There's a ten dollar ring on your finger / And a five dollar ring in my hand" brings to light two people's romantic incompatibility, their diverged paths in life and differing socioeconomic values. In the same words, we learn about the speaker's disappointment and feelings of material inadequacy. "Ordinary" takes a shot at the egotistical rock star type, "A subtle fraud, a wink and nod, you just want someone to applaud / And when you say 'love' you mean 'penetration.