Del Vertigo’s “On the Day That You Come TO”

“Obsidian Hills” enchants listeners with an ethereal beat, but it’s the vague harmonies that dance around us in the air that wind up making this opening cut from Del Vertigo’s On the Day That You Come To one of the more immersive numbers of the record. Although it’s balanced out with a righteous melodicism, the dark hue that hangs over this piece is one that will extend itself to “There’s a Glimmer in the Thicket” seamlessly, alluding to progressive tendencies in this EP that a lot of other artists would have been too intimidated to explore. Del Vertigo is out to mix the light with the dark in this record, and for what I look for in an indie singer/songwriter effort, On the Day That You Come To is worth a second listen. 

At almost eight minutes long, “In Dreams” has an epic sensibility that lends its theatrics to the lyrics of the song boldly, but I would stop short of saying that this is a work of indulgence rather than soul. There’s seemingly so much that Del Vertigo is putting on the line with us in this recording – from his words to the pressurized harmony that’s been tasked with framing them, he isn’t hiding the fact that he’s got a lot on his mind here, but he’s eager to be as vulnerable with us as the space in this studio will allow him to be. The setting notwithstanding, this is intimacy in musicianship that has been missing from a lot of pandemic-era alternative music, to put it mildly. 

“The Fall” features low-fidelity gothic tones that are made into a beautiful avant-garde symphony in the latter half of the song, which also sports a vocal that immediately brings to mind a young J Mascis in my opinion. It’s fragile and yet larger than life, which is a point of contrast that can’t help but speak volumes about the kind of story that’s being told in this track. Del Vertigo might not have an enormous band behind him in this piece, but his multi-instrumentalism and constant attention to detail give “The Fall” the profile of a power ballad without any of the camp, frills, or annoying predictability that often come with making such a single. 

We close out On the Day That You Come To with the title track, a restless little indie rocker that wants to leap out of the speakers and attack anything within its reach, and while we conclude on a much brighter tone than we start this EP out with, the collective narrative is one that feels as complete as it does progressive and conceptual. Del Vertigo takes some real shots at the big time here, evoking powerful emotions with combined retro and futuristic elements in alternative rock, and while his efforts are anything but conventional (at least as I would measure them as a critic), what he ends up with in this EP is something fun, witty, reverent, and at times just commentarial enough to be scathing. From beginning to end, this is a quality record that’s hard to put down. 

Michael Rand