Denison Witmer
“Philadelphia Songs”
Grade: A-

Everyday, walking to class, driving to work, people pass something in Athens that conjures up memories of the past.

Denison Witmer’s latest release, “Philadelphia Songs,” is exactly what the title suggests — a set of songs that connect Witmer to the city surrounding him.

With the album opener, “Sets of Keys,” a memory of his former hopes begins the melancholic theme of nostalgia that the remaining eight tracks follow.

Witmer’s acoustic narratives are soothing and calm in their elegant simplicity, easily evoking similar feelings of remembrance and loss from anyone who bothers to listen.

However, at first listen, “Philadelphia Songs” does sound incredibly coffee house-esque, containing slight and subtle changes in mood and tempo from one song to the next.

But its stability and calmness is part of its charm.

Witmer’s simple vocal delivery and lyrics delve into the universal wounds of loss and loneliness.

“I took off a year/I put into words/Only hurt and how that feels,” Witmer sings on the cautionary “Remember the Things You Have Seen.”

This album seems to be the product of that year.

Witmer opens up his own wounds and shares his pain and memories on songs such as “Stations,” a beautiful lament where he heartfully pleads, “Can you promise me you still love what you loved when you left?”

Similarly, on “Chestnut Hill,” my favorite song on the album, Witmer beautifully and perfectly depicts both musically and lyrically the sadness that materializes at the wonderful memory of a lost love.

The most up tempo song on the record, “24 turned 25,” seems to break protocol from the themes of loss and loneliness, jumping from the past to the present briefly and insecurely with, “Make this the best time in your life/Why … I don’t really know.”)

However, it is the last track, the haunting “Saint Cecilia (Ode to Music)” where Witmer seems to come to terms with his past in Philadelphia and leaves his lasting impression.

To the accompanying piano (recorded during dinner hour at the Philadelphia Ritz Carlton hotel ballroom) Witmer declares, “Without you, it’s hard to be/Optimistic and happy/But it’s the only thing/Life is so worth living.”

How right he is.

– Natalie David