Daniel Tashian, The Silver Seas, Burt Bacharach - All Weaving The Same Musical Thread - Review Of 'High Society'

I discovered The Silver Seas through A Girl Called Eddy aka Erin Moran – TSS’s Daniel Tashian features prominently on her latest release Been Around (2020) as co-producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist.

TSS released High Society in 2007. Commencing with an acoustic hesitation, The Country Life lifts and soars with sprightly joy and establishes the overall direction and texture for all the songs on the album – the emphasis is acoustic, with voices carrying the melody and harmonies, featuring short and judiciously curated songs (about 3 minutes each). TSS work the ballad form, like their predecessors Burt Bacharach, who had his peculiar syncopations and jazz leanings, and Paul McCartney’s archetypal Long And Winding Road. But I can also hear so many other artists who mine the same musical thread, all those singer-songwriters, propagators of the troubadour tradition, who dominated popular music in the 1960’s through to the 1980’s.

The melancholy of the descending melody in She Is Gone, with that resolving chord, the tantalising drag of Tativille, the lush vocal orchestrations of We’ll Go Walking and Hard Luck Tom. Of course it’s Daniel’s voice, easy and accessible, that grounds every song (except Tativille which is an instrumental).

It’s no surprise that Daniel recently released an excellent collaboration with Burt Bacharach. Their album Blue Umbrella (2020) is also highly recommended.