Dawes is a folk-rock band with occasional jazz and pop influences. Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, two brothers from Los Angeles, founded the band in 2009 and have currently produced 11 albums. With 400,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, the band’s most popular albums are All Your Favorite Bands and North Hills, though my favorite is Misadventures of Doomscroller. Dawes is similar to popular artists like Lord Huron and Mumford & Sons. Other artists a fan of those artists might like include the Avett Brothers, the New Basement Tapes, and Houndmouth (who are all conveniently on my folk playlist on Spotify).
When I mentioned Misadventures of Doomscroller being my favorite album, ‘Someone Else’s Cafe / Doomscroller Tries to Relax’ is the reason why. It’s the first track on Misadventures of Doomscroller, the second most popular song on the album, and, at almost ten minutes long, has a lot to unpack. This song represents a lack of control in life, hence the title ‘Someone Else’s Cafe’. The repeating lyric, ‘But you’re still waiting tables / In someone else’s cafe’, is a metaphor relating to the main message of the song and reminds the listeners that everyone is really just a small, working part of a larger system. At around five and a half minutes into the song, the instruments turn more melancholic and represent the realization of how ruthless the world can be. Rather than shutting down, the lyrics highlight the importance of how someone responds to cruelty and suggest that, amidst the chaos, they can still find happiness through connections with others.