David Vandervelde's second album, Waiting for the Sunrise, takes a drastic turn away from the lo-fidelity, high-energy romp of his debut and steers a course for the middle of the classic rock road. Vandervelde has gone from presenting himself as a T. Rexy troubadour to a beardy, laid-back dad rocker who happily channels Neil Young at every opportunity. True, there are still some sonic oddities and tricks sprinkled across the album, but for the most part any track from Waiting for the Sunrise could be played back to back with any track by the Wallflowers or Band of Horses and they would sound perfectly in tune. Instead of wired and energetic tunes and elfin vocals, the scene is laid-back and Stonesy, and rather than drenching the songs in a cavernous echo that would turn everything into a poor man's Spector Wall of Sound, there are smooth arrangements with Hammond organs and vocal harmonies that would make CS&N nod in agreement. It's not a bad record by any stretch; there are plenty of pleasant tunes and you have to credit Vandervelde for borrowing Neil's guitar tone and style rather than his vocal tics, like most of Young's acolytes are prone to do. Still, the album fails to deliver anything close to the thrills and off-kilter delights of The Moonstation House Band. In fact, the only song that even gives you a hint that it's the same guy behind both records is "Cryin' Like the Rain," where the vocals are pleasurably high-pitched and the guitars have some buzz and solid-state bite as opposed to their usual state of woody richness. Listening back to The Moonstation House Band, though, you can hear the seeds of Vandervelde's transformation into a classic rocker. There were pianos, ballads, and strings, and a strong sense that he was a rock & roll traditionalist below the iffy fidelity. What he had, and has now mostly lost, was some spark of originality, some sense that the songs meant something and weren't just jams that would sound good as the summer day rolls past. It's not the worst thing imaginable to make a nice, pleasant record that wouldn't trouble anyone; it's just that Vandervelde (seemingly) promised more than just a peaceful easy feelin', and Waiting for the Sunrise is an almost complete disappointment in that regard. ~ Tim Sendra