Dawes - Stories Don't End

Facts *'Stories Don't End'*, the third outing from breezy Los Angeles-based retro-rockers **Dawes**, takes its name from a line in author *Joan Didion's* 1984 wartime novel *Democracy*. It's an enigmatic phrase to be sure, but it certainly applies to the group's penchant for crafting highly literate slabs of smooth, West Coast Americana Less overtly *Laurel Canyon*-centric than 2011's *'Nothing Is Wrong'*, the album keeps the band's classic rock underpinnings intact, yielding a fresh catch of smooth and soulful, largely midtempo offerings.