CD of The Week

Philly native Dave Hause has had an illustrious and prolific career since dedicating himself to being a solo artist. He’s running a family business with his brother Tim, a talented musician in his own right, releasing records on their own Blood Harmony Records label and assembling the now-annual Sing Us Home festival in Manayunk. And now he’s released his seventh solo album, a closer collaboration with his backing band, The Mermaid, appropriately titled …And The Mermaid.

These new tunes were written and recorded to be play loud and live. The nostalgia-tinged “Cellmates” is full of those classic big punk rock singalong “whoa-ohh” gang vocals, which show up a few more times throughout. “Look Alive” is a call to make the most of this life and live it up even “if it’s the end of the world tonight,” with Dave declaring, "I want to swim out in the ocean with The Mermaid one more time.”

Dave’s always at his best when taking on the sociopolitical nightmares around us and two of the best tracks on …And the Mermaid hit the bullseye. Lead single “Enough Hope” is a big, catchy rocker about the 1% manipulating the American populace, with the brilliant wordplay (and a tip of the hat to The Clash) of “if you give ‘em enough hope/they’ll hang themselves.” And the cranked-up “Revisionist History” lays waste to the rose-colored lies of MAGA and their attempts to turn back the clock: “Come on and do the revisionist history / Come on, say, it's better how it was / Shake it up like the 1950’s / Draw a line between them and us.”

The rollicking, rumbling “Mockingbird Blues” was inspired by an actual bird annoying Dave at home but extrapolated into a bigger metaphor. On the chiming “Yet Outta My Hair,” he says goodbye to a shattered friendship, and while the quieter “Bible Passages” certainly sounds like a song the Hause brothers would cook up, it was actually written by Tim McIlrath of Rise Against fame.

It all wraps up with the mellow, heartfelt ode to Dave’s twin sons, “May Every Fever Break,” with one of the most powerful lines on the album, “May you inherit a California without fire, flood, or quake.” The record opens and closes with the same bit of military-style horns, making it a full-circle listening experience.

…And the Mermaid rocks a bit harder than Dave’s last two releases, really bringing the energy of the live band to these new tunes. All in all, it’s one of the strongest records yet from one of our finest songwriters today.

You’ll be able to hear these songs and sing along to all the “whoaaa-ohhs” yourself at the 2026 Sing Us Home Festival, set for May 1st – 3rd.