Dynamic, diverse and undefinable, this first solo album for six years by the witty Virginia songwriter, producer, and founder of Spacebomb Records founder spans genres from funk, electronica, piano pop and disco to the playful and experimentally cinematic. Backed by the excellent Spacebomb band, his delivery and style echoes everyone from Frank Zappa to 10cc, Sly Stone to Randy Newman, but if one thing is consistent, no song ends up as you expect. The jaunty opener Genuine Hesitation starts with a shimmering intro before launching into a catchy chorus and verse, but has a with a final coda minute of dark foreboding. Nested and Electric are wonderful pop indie bangers, and Let’s Ball is catchy disco, but It Fell Like An Ex and Only In America / When the Curtains Of The Night Are Peeled Back are cinematic and orchestral, the Only In America having a mischievous but also serious flavour of something Randy Newman might write. His lyrics switch from the comic and philosophical to the surreal, from “I’ve been getting old since I was very young” to “One time for our mountain / Our volcano that threw herself from the sea / And when the rain striped the cement sky on the way to crown her / I covered you in a banana leaf”. He’s been the man alongside or behind so many other great albums by other artists including Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection with Lonnie Holley in April this year, but in the solo spotlight he is particularly eclectic, endlessly imaginative and playful, an artist at the top of his came with a huge talent and variety of skills. Out on Domino Records.
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