New York singer/songwriter Brian Dunne grapples with themes of class, adulthood, and the complex endeavor of pursuing a fulfilling life in ‘Clams Casino,’ an energetic rock album that gets to the essence of a generation striving to move forward when the dream diverges from reality.
Stream: “Clams Casino” – Brian Dunne
I’ve been trying to have a good life…
* * *
Dunne starts his fifth studio album with a line that’s so straightforward and unembellished, it may be easy to overlook the layers of history and raw sentiment underpinning it.
“I’ve been trying to have a good life”: It’s a genuine exhale, an honest admission, a reflection of a generation. It stands as the subtle thesis of Clams Casino, an album grounded in the disquiet and uncertainty of American life in 2025 – where the middle-class is fading, dreams feel increasingly unattainable, and the desire for “a good thing” can feel both justified and increasingly complicated. Dunne sings with clarity and emotion from a turning point, highlighting the small rifts and bigger realizations of a generation learning, often painstakingly, how to persevere.
In these tracks, the desire for more becomes a moral quandary, survival brings its own paradoxes, and the pursuit of ‘success’ – however one defines it – is both tender and troubled. This is Dunne’s most unflinching and profoundly human work to date. At its heart, Clams Casino (released September 5th via Missing Piece Records) paints the portrait of a generation maturing amidst the ruins of a fractured American dream – navigating, with honesty and weary hope, how to endure when the pursuit of a good life feels exceptionally complex.
Clams Casino – Brian Dunne
I’m just trying to have a good life
Clams casino on a Sunday night
Betting the house on a bottle of wine
I’m just trying to have a good time
Is it so bad to want a good thing?
Don’t even let them catch you looking
Don’t let them see you getting in
Is it so bad to want a good thing?
‘Cause all I want is just a little bit more
Is that so much to ask for?
And clams casino on a Sunday night
Is it so bad to want a good life?
Is it so bad to want a good life?
– “Clams Casino,” Brian Dunne
For over ten years, Brian Dunne has been documenting the subtle evolution of his generation, album by album – capturing the essence of modern American life with kindness, bite, humor, and heart. Based in Brooklyn and hailing from the working-class area of Monroe in Orange County, he reflects both worlds in his songwriting – a dynamic that grounds his solo work as well as his contributions to the folk rock supergroup Fantastic Cat.
Beginning with his third album Selling Things in 2020 and spanning through 2023’s Loser on the Ropes, Dunne has traced a loose constellation of characters – a mix of himself, his friends, and the faces he encounters – as they transition from idealism to the sometimes harder, stranger truths of “regular adult life.” These albums paint an unintentional narrative arc, each installment revealing a little more age, wisdom, and confrontation with the toll of navigating a world where the rules seem unfair and upward mobility is increasingly illusory.
If Selling Things examined the structures of American life and Loser on the Ropes struggled to maintain its footing, Clams Casino emerges from the aftermath.
These songs resume the narrative once the dust has settled, pondering how to continue living when life hasn’t unfolded as expected.
“A significant part of this kind of writing is to ensure that with each album, the characters evolve just enough for listeners to understand where we are now,” Dunne, 36, shares with Atwood Magazine. “So, ‘I’ve been trying to have a good life.’ I felt that resonates in my mid-30s, reflecting where I stand.”
He adds, “I’m not overwhelmed by angst as I may have been a decade ago. Instead, I’m actively pursuing a better life, as are my peers, but there are so many obstacles. There’s a wealth of great things in this world held hostage by the 1%.”
This candid, clear-eyed perspective encapsulates the core tension of these songs: The struggle of balancing youth and adulthood, neither broke and 22 nor affluent and 45, while observing a world that continually shifts the expectations further away. Dunne writes from that narrow space with empathy and insight, delving into what it means to yearn for more when the surrounding systems appear designed to thwart that desire, and how to claim a place for oneself when the inherited dream no longer aligns with the current reality.
Musically, Clams Casino carries
I titani della dance tedesca Modeselektor hanno annunciato i piani per il nuovo album 'Classics Vol. 1'. Il team di produzione - Gernot Bronsert e Sebastian Szary - è fondamentale.
Nel suo secondo album "Describe", Hannah Jadagu crea un rifugio per gli ascoltatori alle prese con le sfumature dell'amore, del desiderio o del ritorno interiore, in una fusione sperimentale tra l'analogico e il moderno.
Il Treefort Music Festival ha aggiunto una serie di grandi nomi al suo cartellone. Il festival annuale di musica e arti si svolge nel centro di Boise, Idaho, con
A cura di Mitch Mosk, le scelte dell'editore di questa settimana presentano musica di Bartees Strange, Spanish Love Songs, Dijon, Deadbeat Girl, Dutch Interior e mildred!
Come se Nate Amos non avesse già abbastanza da fare essendo il 50% del duo Water From Your Eyes, firmato dalla Matador, il suo vasto lavoro solista sta inoltre attirando
È difficile trovare leggende più grandi di Nas e DJ Premier. Il rapper di Queensbridge ha costruito, si potrebbe dire, il capolavoro definitivo del rap della East Coast con
New York singer/songwriter Brian Dunne explores themes of class, adulthood, and the challenging effort to live well in ‘Clams Casino,’ an energetic rock album that gets to the core of a generation figuring out how to persevere when the dream diverges from reality.