The Filter Bubbles Blues by David Dondero
In 2006, when NPR’s All Songs Considered called David Dondero one of the “best living songwriters” you would have thought that everything would have changed for him. But today, Dondero is, at best, uncomfortable with that badge. “That’s just one person’s opinion”, he says. Dondero has been a journeyman to the craft of songwriting for the past 25 years but remains on the fringe of popular acceptance. Sure, it’s his comfort zone, but that fringe has taken him all over the world under the radar. He’s a working class drifter who’s worked every shit job known to mankind., and the songs reflect it. He’s a Woody Guthrie disciple. Not much of a showman but he’s a captivating performer, writer and anti-folk hero in the underground scene.
The Filter Bubble Blues, Dondero’s 10th LP is a biting, wary, heartbroken and sometimes hilarious sendup of the dumpster fire that is modern American political theatre and identity politics. Songs of a place hellbent on robbing itself of the last vestiges of what once made it great–or could’ve made it great if there had ever been any truth in it. And rest assured, he’d been looking for the truth in it and in us.
Dondero challenged himself with the difficult task of writing thought provoking songs during volatile political times in which most people in America appear to be living in increased isolation, modern convenience, information overload, and entrenched political beliefs. People seem to have desensitized themselves to the gravity of the times. Dondero considers how this numbness has created a toxic instability which has overtaken our once polite civil discourse and divided people and families.
With frustration, candor, and humor he lays bare an America at yet another crossroads, and it’s hard to argue with what he sees. A place where investment properties are worth more than human lives, where hypocrisy breeds hysteria, and the emperor truly has no clothes, save an ill-fitting red hat and backwards gun belt. The result is one of the best Dondero albums to date, full of the brilliant wordplay and craft listeners have come to expect from Dave. His voice calmer and steadier, while still full of emotional intensity, and the songs perfectly matched to production. On every track you feel like you are in the room with him and that we are in this together, even if seems we are wandering lost and self-sidelined at this point in history.
“Dondero is a brilliant storyteller and poet. His searching melodies and distinctive voice are heartbreakingly beautiful and uplifting.” – NPR
“It sounds sharp and it’ll leave you hungry. That’s the mark of a gifted songwriter.” – Pitchfork
“It’s just an undeniable thing. Whoever’s in the room, even if they don’t know about him prior, are just kind of captivated.” – David Bazan
