Mount Hudson releases Lakeside Water

Brooklyn does it again. There truly must be something in that water in that town – another singer/songwriter has delivered a hit. Dave Yim, who performs under the name Mount Hudson, has released the just under-four-minute folk/pop rock song “Lakeside Water”. This song is  just a thrill.

URL: https://www.mounthudson.com/

“Lakeside Water” takes the listener to the outer banks of the imagination. It thrives on the storytelling and Yim’s wordsmith – it’s all that it needs to be. No prose here, just solid songwriting and a strong musical bed at its core. The starting lines “when the whole world dances around you, choose to remember, choose to forget” grabbed me instantly. The underlying music is a bit classical-sounding – the bass is throbbing along, the violin strings seem to be readying themselves for launch and a warm guitar brushed up against Yim’s calming voice. His voice is beautiful. He’s like James Taylor and masterfully carries the listener in tune, as opposed to relying on extra bells and whistles.

The chorus “tell me now, tell me now” gets pretty stuck in your head and I adored the way he sings “just be the sound of the lakeside water”. I’m not sure what he intended, but I felt while listening to this song, and well-after, that it’s that moment in time when you are bombarded with requests, or are facing a big life-decision, it’s important to step back and really hear the options. Or exhibit a strong leap-of-faith in that decision. Towards the end of the song he sings “will you ride that train until it ends” and that image of a train track coming to a stop, or like Shel Silverstein poem “Where the Sidewalk Ends” there’s a definitive moment where our life ends. Do you want to be over-thinking things or just go with your gut instinct. Shrug. I don’t know what he meant, but Yim sure did a number on giving his listeners the chance to choose their own adventure and explore within themselves these answers. I dig it.

After the song’s bridge, the tempo amps it up just a bit. Yim gets a bit more animated, and the strings and percussion get a bit noisier. They raise a bit of a ruckus but it’s all constrained and packaged in a fantastic way.

Fans of folk music and the singer/songwriter genre will really embrace Mount Hudson. This song just begs to be listened to and its theme just invigorates. It might not be pop enough for Top 40 radio, but it’s a solid song. Listeners that enjoy Lewis Capaldi (“Someone You Loved”) might go fishing into “Lakeside Water” and find that they like the “bite” of this song. I really have nothing bad to say about this song and it would be a real treat to hear it performed live. I’m wondering if Mount Hudson would have the same measured emotion and if he would use a live track, but nonetheless, the song would be something to hear and experience live. It’s worth the listen regardless.

Mark Druery