Sam Prekop
Singer, guitarist, and texturalist Sam Prekop has beguiled critics for years, from his days with Shrimp Boat to more recent times with theSea & Cake. His debut dips from the same musical pool, hinging in a big way on Chicago's advanced musical strange birds that accompany Prekop.Jim O'Rourke, known as much for his noise explorations as for his less steely sense of lush sonics, is the producer--and shows up on several tunes as an instrumentalist. Likewise, Archer Prewitt, a veteran of theCoctails, and drummer Chad Taylor add a harmonic framework and rhythmic pinning to Prekop's extravagantly slack tunes. Prekop writes for bending, clean guitars and near-samba energies, wincing out vocals that sound smoothed by an uncertain anguish. Musically, there's lots going on--recessive, siren-like pitches; plush layers behind a relaxed postpop, postrock, postjazz toss-it-all; and a huge amount of pure song craft. There's great balance here between sonic indulgence and economics, evident in the mix of pluck and sculpted slush in the strings and guitars.--Andrew Bartlett