CD of The Week

Tragedy struck Ben Kweller and his family in early 2023 when his teenage son Dorian was killed in a car accident. Dorian had just started releasing music under his middle name Zev and was set to make his SXSW debut weeks later. It was a heartbreaking thing to happen, especially to one of the nicest and most beloved musicians in the indie rock world. But after taking time to grieve, BK vowed to keep doing what he does best and use his art to move forward. The result is Cover the Mirrors, which reckons with the heaviness of the past two years while never totally succumbing to the darkness.

Cover the Mirrors kicks off with “Going Insane,” a piano meditation on reckoning with recent events but also the joy of hitting the road playing music, where “It doesn't get better than life in the van/With an axe in your hand.” “Dollar Store” is built around guitar tones straight out of the Siamese Dream playbook, cross-pollinated with an Americana vibe bolstered by the assistance of Waxahatchee, before the song explodes into fireworks. Katie Crutchfield isn’t the only musical pal to lend a hand on Cover the Mirrors. Jason Schwartzman, under his Coconut Records alias, shows up to boost his pal’s mood on “Depression,” where even being trapped in the darkness for most of the track, BK sees a light at the end of the tunnel, singing that “a new day’s coming for me.” And “Killer Bee” was written in honor of Nell Smith, who, like Dorian, was a young up-and-coming musician who died too young. She was a protégé of The Flaming Lips, who collaborated on the tune.

“Park Harvey Fire Drill” is a throwback to his earlier alt-folk rock days, with Dylan-y stream-of-conscious lyrics, complete with a shout-out to Sha Sha. The lead single “Optimystic” is also a classic BK crunchy rocker, but with the out-of-character admission that he’s not feeling optimistic for a change. The acoustic, heartbroken “Letter to Agony” finds Kweller in Elliott Smith territory, singing some of his darkest lyrics ever (“I love you so much it'll push you away / Push you away from me / And then I will hate, hate myself more / Than I do currently”).

Cover the Mirrors wraps, appropriately, with “Oh Dorian,” a gentle hug of a laid-back rocker that is an outstanding tribute to his late son. With an assist from MJ Lenderman, BK doesn’t truly say goodbye as he lists what made Dorian such a great person and concludes “I can’t wait to hang with you again.” It’s the perfect closer to a wonderful record, a deeply felt way to accept the unthinkable and move forward, one step and one song at a time.