Doug Tuttle: Doug Tuttle

Doug Tuttle’s first solo record came after the end of his psych band MMOSS and his romantic relationship. Both splits sent him from New Hampshire to Boston where he wrote this record. There is, fittingly, a sense of loss and a new sense of urgency in these spacey pop tunes. Tuttle’s voice is often hushed and echoing, surrounded on all sides by guitars, sometimes jangling and rippled, sometimes smudged and impressionistic. His heady pop tunes sway along but convey deep, catchy hooks and immediacy, especially on gems like the thumping “Forget the Days”, the bittersweet expanse of “Sewn Days”, and the dim, hopeful tones of closer “Better Days (The Wool’s Grown Lighter)”.

Other moments, especially “Turn This Love”, stretch Tuttle’s spacey atmospherics into pop epics, and the results feel much larger than you’d expect from such an unassuming pop record. Other moments, such as “Where You Plant Your Love…Is Where It Grows” or “Lasting Away”, feel too crowded to contain all their layers of effects. These moments feel like indulgent outliers to a typically controlled and compelling record, but even at its most indulgent, this record remains a solid and charming set, one that marks a fresh and exciting new start for Doug Tuttle as a solo musician.