Sometimes it’s easy to think that Rome was built in a day, or maybe just two weeks. In half a month, I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business, aka Ace Enders, completely reworked top to bottom 6 songs previously released from The Early November, & A Million Different People, and ICMAM and threw in a new track as well.
 
Dust’n Off The Ol’ Guitar starts out with this song, called “Growing Pains.” It instantly shows the Ace’s talent in every shape and form as an airy synth aura covers the track and he chillingly sings, “I’m getting old for these growing pains” over a beautiful picking pattern. Ace has gone on-record saying that most of his new material will feature similar looping patterns like those on “Growing Paints” and the rest of this release.
 
Smoothly transitioning from new to old, the synth part seamlessly ties “Growing Pains” to “Baby Blue” as Ace completely transforms The Early November track. No longer as angst-ridden and raw, Ace slows it down and lets his vocals dominate. A perfectly placed xylophone hits just right as Ace sings “Nothing’s ever hurt so much for me // To let you go // Than to let you go.”
 
Each track on Dust’n Off The Ol’ Guitar will make fans wish The Early November’s material was recorded in more of a current style as the production in vocals and guitars blow the originals’ out of the water. The key to the release is that all of the reworked songs sound brand new and are just as enjoyable even if all the originals have been overplayed.
 
“Body Like Mind” and “No Good At Saying Sorry” are easily choice cuts, as are all of the songs on the EP, but they do not compare to “When I Hit The Ground.” By stripping the piano, drums, and big production away from the & A Million Different People version, Ace is able to create an intimate track that is much more relatable to the listener than the original. It’s unfortunate to consider that if most of When I Hit The Ground sounded like the reworked version of the title track, it might have been a groundbreaking hit for Ace’s career after The Early November.
 
“Something That Produces Results” is certainly a favorite on The Room’s Too Cold for most fans of The Early November, but the reworked version is a beast in itself. Though it’s not nearly as in your face and loud, the ICMAM version maintains the unique vocals of the original while adding the Dust’n Off The Ol’ Guitar xylophone to create one of the most altered and musically interesting songs on the release.
 
Dust’n Off The Ol’ Guitar closes with “I Want To Hear You Sad,” a classic off of The Early November’s For All Of This EP.  The quirky bass parts on the original are redone with the help of Ace’s trusty xylophone to help lay the groundwork for the resonating vocals that overtake the song to make it one of the best on the release. As Ace sings “For all of this // I’m better off with out you,” the listener can’t help but hope this isn’t the end.

****.5/*****