Palm Springs: no bad songs on the dolphin record

Erica Dunn's Palm Springs record is eight songs and 35:18, and the review attached to it makes a clean argument: there is not a bad song. Brett Abrahamsen wrote that in Post-Trash. The same review singles out 'Waiting for the Gate' as the highlight and says even the weakest track, 'No Contest,' is solid. That is the record's shape: high floor, no wasted space.

Dunn is a multi-instrumentalist and a member of Tropical Fuck Storm. That context matters because the review places her in different company. Abrahamsen compares her songwriting to Townes Van Zandt and Joni Mitchell and calls the result 'a batch of impeccable songs.' The titles back up the literate reach: 'Lay Your Eric Burden Down,' 'Your Ashes, My Tree,' 'Parthenon Baby,' and the title track that closes the album at 5:25. 'Waiting for the Gate,' the named highlight, runs 5:09, the longest track before the finish. The structure gives the record a patient middle and a long goodbye.

The only weakness named is relative. Abrahamsen names 'No Contest' as the weakest track and still calls it quite solid. For a reviewer to reach for the least song and land on 'solid' means the floor is the real story. If there is a limit, it is in scale. The praise is for craft and sustained quality, not for one moment that demands a repeat. Nothing in the available material promises a hook that stops the scrolling. That is a tradeoff, not a failure.

The score is 4.0. A record that earns that review's line, with no bad songs and a weak track that still works, is a strong one. It is not 4.5 because the available evidence is a single review, and the review's only complaint is relative. But a relative complaint that lands on 'solid' says a lot. Even the least track makes the case for the album.

The tracklist

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