Kevin Dunn --- The Miraculous Miracle of the Imperial Empire

Kevin Dunn was a songwriter, guitarist and singer in seminal Atlanta band The Fans. Formed in the 70's, The Fans were pop purists who preceded the onslaught of punk and new wave, prefiguring both movements return to roots sensibility while eschewing the more obvious pitfalls and dead ends that truncated the arcs of both. The Fan's songs had guts, were savvy and knew their musical history. They weren't a new conversation so much as a particularly articulate side conversation. Interestingly enough, while they were born (and died) in the desert that was 70's FM radio, populated largely by dinosaurs --- Kansas and the Alan Parsons Project on the avant end, and Led Zeppelin and Heart on the less prog side ---no one at the time seemed to sense the greater wasteland ahead for rock. Disco, largely derided as meaningless, was actually a harbinger, stripping away grandiosity and focusing on the senses. Disco cleared a great many fallen trees, culling the overgrown underbrush, letting in light, and, generally simplifying things so they could be recomplicated in new ways.

After the demise of The Fans, Dunn continued to record and put out music until 1985.

In 2013, Kevin Dunn released his first new recording in almost 30 years, The Miraculous Miracle of the Imperial Empire --- described by Dunn as an "old fashioned" concept album.  A full, nuanced portrait, filled with ideas, musical and lyrical, and framed by a sense for and a knowledge of history --- musical, cultural and political ---  TMMIE is fully invested in an idiom that has largely been discarded, superseded or horribly cheapened. Whatever it's faults and shortcomings in the 80's, rock was still credible. Now, however, instead of the landscape detail limning TMMIE, we are presented with the megapixel flatness of bands like Bastille and St. Lucian, all posture and tired trope, not convinced enough of themselves to convince many others, but,  more importantly, unable to extend or change the conversation. As we say so often of the unable --- well, they try.

Dunn does more than try. Over the course of 14 songs he creates a musical world that is, tired phrase, greater than the sum of its parts. Working with elements that have not, essentially, changed since the 80's, Dunn creates a voice that is fresh, original and timeless. Stand out songs, such as Little Miss Orange Alert, brim with musical quotations and sly allusions, yet stand on their own as pulsing and original, invitations to the dance rather than the presentation of a full dance card.

Interestingly, and I mean this as a compliment, the album is a time capsule. There are few if any hints of the radical streams, whether you like them or not, that have flowed into pop music in the last 25 years --- no hip hop, no electronica, no world music. And that's absolutely fine. Dunn's voice is fresh and sure. He is a master of what he does. If he doesn't want to kowtow to the market, this doesn't mean that he is not thinking of his audience, rather he prefers not to underestimate their taste.