Simultaneously sweet and anxious, the immaculate psych-pop of
Ari Roar's 2018 debut,
Calm Down, was so delightful in both its character and technical execution that it seemed a likely anomaly, one averaging less than two minutes per song. That album was produced by Hunter Davidsohn, whom
Ari Roar's
Caleb Campbell brought in due to his work on
Frankie Cosmos'
Next Thing. As if taking influence from the latter's ultra-consistent Greta Kline,
Campbell shows that there were more pop confections in the well as he follows up a year later with the 14-track
Best Behavior. Unlike
Calm Down, it was recorded by
Campbell alone, on a portable eight-track tape recorder/mixer in a converted shed at his parents' home. The resulting songs are a little longer (now over two minutes), and the sound is a touch less crisp, but the mood is still quaintly bittersweet. It opens with the druggy guitar arpeggios of "My Luck Is Up" ("You found my tell") before moving on to the much perkier but also self-depreciating "Too Dumb," which trades mid-'60s psychedelia for matinee-idol retro-rock. Later, representative of an album that's consistently both catchy and uneasy, "Belly Shakin'" combines bouncy guitar pop, trippy organ tones, and a yearning, swirling melody.
Best Behavior closes on "Learn the Trick," a stripped-down acoustic entry that proves -- efficient arrangements aside -- that it's all there in the songwriting. ~ Marcy Donelson