Occasionally, electronic beats surface in the background, but they are far from showy, barely serving as metronomic pulses behind his sparse guitar lines. Each track begins with a delicate strum of only one or two strings of the guitar followed by Robinson s expressively boyish vocals, which translate freakishly obsessive lyrics. Gone are the angular tendencies of the bass-heavy Flin Flon as well as the sleek, spacey pop of Air Miami. Robinson has made his simplest and most direct record yet. He sings with such stifled emotion, though, that it comes across very calculating.
Every word is enunciated to an obnoxious degree.
There are bursts of emotion, but they are so rare as to be shocking. The electronics are as sparse as the guitar lines, resembling at times the primitive sound on New Order s first album, Movement. Robinson s often silly and puzzling lyrics remove what would be a dark cloud if the music were to be believed. Richard Baluyut and Fontaine Toups of Versus lend help to the proceedings on both guitar and back-up vocals, but this is wholeheartedly a solo outing for Robinson. It has his controlling fingerprints all over it- from the instantly recognizable jangle of his guitar to his unmistakable choirboy harmonies.