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Apr 16, 2025 Web Exclusive By Issa Nasatir

Dutch Interior take a step back into nostalgia to determine their futures in their latest offering, Moneyball. With five of the six band members credited on the album’s lyrics and vocals, the LA-based group pulls from their collective memories and dreams to create something that represents the band as a whole. From their newly self-built studio, they construct a shelter of timeworn sounds infused with new experiences and a dry wit that pumps life into its brittle bones.

Moneyball pulls from all sides of the American musical sphere; steel pedal guitars, harmonicas, and banjos thoughtfully make their appearances throughout the album and pay delightful homage to the band’s predecessors. From the deep tradition of beat-down country in “Horse,” to the riff-heavy rocking of “Fourth Street,” or the signature sound of The Allman Brothers Band on “Sweet Time,” Dutch Interior’s nostalgia feels like a hug with an old friend. The influence on the latter is clear as day, but the band’s tribute never feels too derivative, standing proud as an ode to a unique sound gathering undeserved dust.

However, the band never let go of the quiet freak folk that defined them early on in their career, creating murky soundscapes soaked in enough intimacy to ground Moneyball’s lighthearted humor. “Canada” and “Life (So Crazy),” tracks lost in themselves that unfeasibly try to clutch onto impermanence, and “Science Fiction,” a song that opens with high, quivering strings that rub off onto Shane Barton’s shuddering vocals, hold these roots most deeply. Hushed, space-age tones help the band express the frightening uncertainty of their future with so much life left to live.

The greats are the greats for a reason, and to ignore the musical heritage before them would be a misstep that the LA six-piece refuse to take. Synthesized with the “freak Americana” of the hopelessly self-aware, Dutch Interior use elements of their pasts and futures to create something wholly strapped into the present. (www.dutchinterior.net)

Author rating: 8/10