It’s been a pretty uneven year for music, for reasons both understandable and surprising, but one luminary who has shined bright like the New York City skyline has been Johnny Dynamite and The Bloodsuckers. Through a string of three captivating singles, capped by last month’s Song of the Year contender “Bats In The Woods”, the Brooklyn-based Dynamite has added a necessary dose of soul to synth-pop, the type of heartfelt, hand-on-shoulder sound that’s been needed as we come out of an experience of collective trauma. It’s retro music for the future, it’s tomorrow’s sound steeped in yesterday, and it swirls with a panicked calm fit for right now that boasts some brilliant songwriting at its core.
On this day (June 25), Dynamite and his band drop their sophomore album in Sleeveless, via Born Losers Records, adding six new tracks to the emerging storyline. From the shimmering wave of “Abasement Tapes” to the MTV-launch-era readiness of “Can’t Stop My Love,” Dynamite is a grainy, gritty artist trapped in a world of 4K, relaying campfire stories and the thrill of human adventure through the coldest, latest technology we’re all forced to endure.
It feels like he’s from another time, transported here in this fucked up era as someone off in the distance shouts something like “they don’t make ’em like this no more.” We’re not even sure what he’s saving us from, but we feel safer with him around. This is the album your best friend never made, instead made by a relative stranger who seems to know all about you and your personal struggles, simply because these are all shared experiences of our lives spent stunted from true growth.
“Sleeveless is the sequel to my first album Heartbroken,” Dynamite tells Vanyaland. “The name comes from the phrase, to wear your heart on your sleeve — but now these sleeves are torn off and replaced with spikes on the shoulders.”
In his act of musical heroism, he’s clearly ready for battle.