Other You

His brightest and most vivid record. ... Here he finds new dimensions, rethinking his phrasing, tone and cadence. [Sep 2021, p.16]

Gunn is not merely the ghost animating Other You’s remarkably ornate machine. The vocal melodies here are among the tenderest he’s ever written, and they carry the same sense of inevitability that he invests in his guitar lines; they sound so natural, it can be easy to overlook their formal complexity.

The cohesive Other You finds Gunn comfortably delivering gorgeous layers of guitar sounds over relaxed songs which are in no hurry to do much more than reflecting the Southern California sun.

‘Fulton’ and ‘Morning River’ are early highlights, while ‘Circuit Rider’ seems to exude the characteristics of the album’s Los Angeles setting. Closing with the reflective ‘Ever Feel That Way’, Steve Gunn marvels with the lightest of touches.

Music that is dizzying beautiful, but never precious. [Oct 2021, p.88]

It’s a release you’ll want to live with for a while, and not just on Sunday mornings.

Other You isn’t quite perfect. The album leans too heavily on dreamy tempos; more of the ‘motorik’ reverberations of the Grateful Dead-jamming-with-Neu! gem “Protection” wouldn’t go amiss. Gunn’s step into the unforgiving glare of the spotlight as a singer coincides with some fairly densely cryptic lyrics, too. Such misgivings are minor gripes when faced with closer “Ever Feel That Way”, a life-enriching anthem for empathy and mutual care.

It’s a nice rest, listening to Other You. It’s hard to remember what you heard, but very, very pleasant while it’s happening.

While Gunn gets in some liquid licks, they’re brief asides, never trips that’ll take you somewhere on their own, and they’re often folded into gleaming layers of keyboards and harp. While the drums occupy considerable sonic space, they are frustratingly unemphatic. ... He has never sung better. However, every time he solos, one wishes he’d keep going a bit longer. Here’s hoping that Gunn can figure out how to showcase his voice without doing so at the expense of his instrumental gifts. [Sep 2021, p.52]