Index of University Press Releases

Sept. 19, 2008

In Review: Second album better defines artist’s focus
Mari Olson • The Daily Republic

Don’t judge a CD by its cover, or lack thereof.

Platte native Andrew Bakken, 23, has released his second CD, “The Message is Clear,” and the tree-free album was made without a jacket.

“I think that a lot more people are starting to be concerned with the environment and it’s important for all of us to do our part,” Bakken said in an e-mail. “I wanted to show that for one thing the album didn’t really need any fancy art, and that even when you’re creating you can still conserve.”

His music goes by Sidelines and Street Signs, though he’s basically a one-man show, performing vocals and various instruments and mixing the music with help from others.

He was last year’s Wesleyan Idol winner, released a documentary about hunger that was aired on South Dakota Public Radio’s Web site and he also released “ist Street” earlier this year. He is currently studying in Leiden, the Netherlands, and will graduate from Dakota Wesleyan University in 2009 with a multimedia degree.

“… Honestly I wanted to put out something new as soon as possible because a lot of people were showing interest after ‘ist Street’ came out,” he said. “I had recorded a few tracks already that I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with, and almost at the same time of the other CD’s release I was already in the middle of writing this one.”

His first CD could be described as a little indie and a little alternative, with occasional spouts of bluegrass/folk influences. The album is easy to listen to, but not all of the songs seemed to fit on the same album. The second follows suit with compositions that continue to love up the keyboards and guitars but has more continuity as far as sounding like one album from a single artist. Bakken previously mentioned that he wasn’t shooting for a specific genre in his first CD, with that said, it’s possible he started to find his sound in the second.

Bakken doesn’t expect all to draw the same conclusions about his music, nor does he want them to.

“I always find that when I hear a great song the song makes an impression on me, but I can still draw my own conclusions about what they meant,” he said. “Songs are really something that are made for people to relate to, and I always want my listeners to feel that I’m relating to their lives and not my own.”

WHERE TO BUY THE CD: Palsons Music Center in Mitchell, or e-mail him for a copy at sidelinesstreetssigns@myway.com.