Tommy (Dosh album)

Background

The album is named after Dosh soundman Tom Cesario, who died just before the album was released and to whom the album is dedicated. Dosh and Cesario attended the same high school and became friends within the Brooklyn music scene, and later in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, before Dosh hired Cesario in 2006.

Production

The album features Andrew Bird contributing vocals to tracks "Number 41" and "Nevermet". "Airlift" contains a sample of Dosh and his friend covering "Run Like Hell" by Pink Floyd.

Critical reception

Pitchfork Media's Larry Fitzmaurice wrote: "Tommy's strongest moments-- the elegiac piano on the ironically-named 'Loud' or the hollow boom-bap of 'Airlift'-- sound fully realized and complete, suggesting that Dosh's best work is still yet to come."

Scott Gordon of The A.V. Club remarked that the album "doesn't aim to dazzle like 2008's Wolves And Wishes or 2006's The Lost Take; instead, it focuses all its tech-wizardry on some of the most vulnerable, exultant melodies Dosh has captured yet."

Mike Newmark of PopMatters said that "Tommy is not explicitly a funereal record, but there's a melancholic air blowing through it that seems to constantly refer back to Cesario's passing, even when the musicians are working up a sweat."

A review of the album at Tiny Mix Tapes suggested there are "some practical questions about when somebody would actually want to listen to Tommy and what one takes away from it when one actually does listen. With a few exceptions, Dosh leaves those questions unanswered on his latest offering."

Zach Cole of URB said the album "excels because there is no one correct way to describe the music. Using everything from Afrobeat to IDM, Dosh does it all; yet, he manages to find a way to make the entire project cohesive."

Track listing

All tracks written by Dosh, except where noted.