By Craig Howieson

The stunted, rumbling bass that opens I Don’t See You Anymore drives the track to a cliff’s edge, only to stare into the vast expanse of the canyon that lies below. Reverb insulated swells of guitar shimmer like ripples of heat from the desert floor before Sam Pirruccello’s soothing voice brings a sense of calm to proceedings. But by this stage you are rapt, ready to follow where his narrative leads. 

Chicago’s Dogs At Large are set to release their seventh record early next year, with I Don’t See You Anymore being the second track to be shared following the slowly simmering country waltz of Tennessee. While Tennessee and its ruminations on making a new life felt anchored to the past, I Don’t See You Anymore furrows new soil. Recalling the future facing melancholic indie-Americana of Nap Eyes, the track has a groove and sense of style that unshackles it from any country parameters Pirruccello has been working within.

The song details the pain of cutting off a friend whose belief system has become intolerable and alien not only to you but the person they once were. The hopeful comfort that floods Pirruccello’s voice in the chorus chooses to remember how people were as opposed to what they have become, but just before the psych tinged instrumental kicks in to close out proceedings, we are left in no doubt that his friend is lost (‘I don’t see you anymore when I look into your eyes.)

This may be some peoples first introduction to Dogs At Large, and what a place to start. 

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