The Slow Drag released its debut full-length album, Dope Tunage Vol. 1, in October 2019, and Austin James, the creative force behind (and lone member of) The Slow Drag celebrated the collection of his mid-tempo pop-rockers with a release event at Nashville’s Hutton Hotel.
The tunes would probably fit well on “adult contemporary” pop radio, and while James counts punk music among his influences, the sound leans toward the poppiest of punk and rock, with more of a cheerful singer-songwriter flavor.
James wrote, performed, recorded, produced and mixed the album himself. The instrumentation, while not complex, sounds high-quality, though the vocals are way out front in the mix, emphasizing the songwriting, and the instruments don’t get in the way of the lyric delivery. The singer exhibits skilled vocals and a fairly elastic range on Dope Tunage.
It does seem The Slow Drag makes an effort to lace the songs with just a calculated bit of “edge” to them, with careful doses of distortion dialed in and near-constant snare-drum smacks on 2 and 4 throughout the tracks.
The musical mood comes across as oddly bubblegummy for some of the darker lyrics, such as I (yai yai yai yai yai yai) got death on my mind (i i i i i ind), even though that one is in a minor key and is slightly more haunting than most others on the 12-track collection.
Something resonated with You got a charcoal pencil, I got a fresh pack of steel strings, in the relationship-focused “All Because.”
“Assassin” has a pleasing groove to it, with a great sax jam, performed by Peter Eddins, one of the only elements on the release not directly supplied by James.
A listener may find “God Roots for My Team” a clever concept, or blatant arrogance and sacrilege, based on how they view the nature of God and spiritual matters.
God roots for my team . . . he looks exactly like me. We both agree on what’s not a sin, if it’s cool with me it’s cool with him, James sings on this one. God thinks the same way, he does just what I say—one might rightly suspect there’s a little sarcasm in there, and that perhaps the song is a bit of a jab at people who seem to believe they never do wrong in God’s eyes.
“Wildfires” makes for an interesting change of pace and feel, with a little more modern and trippy sound to it.
Overall, Dope Tunage Vol. 1 has some fairly catchy hooks and choruses built for singing along. Its easygoing, throwback vibe—a little ’60s rock, a little Chicago ballad (minus the horns), a little pop-punk—falls somewhere in between Blink 182 and Phil Collins.
The Slow Drag’s music is generally not slow, maybe just a little draggy, and, while energetic, lacks a great deal of musical originality and can come across as a bit generic. Perhaps the lyrics on relationships and life will speak to some listeners.
According to James, he’s not trying to please everyone.
“If you like it, great! And if you don’t, go listen to something else,” he says.
Find more on The Slow Drag, and view livestreaming performances at theslowdrag.com.
