Single Review: Black Dogs & Babies

Black Dogs & Babies is the second single of 2019 from the Jason McIver Collective, and you shouldn’t be fooled by the gentle Cat Stevens guitar intro. For one minute (or close enough to it) you may think you are listening to a lullaby for an adult that transports you into a reminiscing space, but then the drums crank up, a soaring guitar riff kicks in and the vocals soar, taking you to another level, especially with the lyric “sometimes I feel like something’s wrong with me, that’s just me”.

The song is then transformed, making it sound more like Audioslave. Shortly thereafter, it plateaus out again before kicking back into that crunching chorus – darkness and light, heavy and humble, gently persuasive. The guitar solo towards the end is also very nicely restrained.

Jason McIver has a great voice in the classic sense. He’s been kicking around music, in more recent times based in Taupo, for the best part of two generations. If there is a third album in the pipeline, I can’t wait to hear it.