Style: Intimate, earnest folk-rock; compare to Josh Rouse, Elliott Smith, Jackson Browne
Top tracks: “Cursing,” “Two and a Glass Rose”
None of Denison Witmer’s recordings have strayed from the gentle and warm, and The Ones Who Wait—his debut on Relient K’s Mono vs. Stereo label and first since 2008’s Carry the Weight—is no different. It’s his strength and his crutch. Witmer is a deft fingerpicker, and he sings in a soothing voice that neither whispers nor foments, often lending his albums more of a flat monotony than a satisfying consistency. Witmer’s confessional style works on songs like the simple, passive-aggressive “Cursing,” but on “Life Before Aesthetics,” his philosophical musings overwhelm a lovely melody.
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