Indie rock auteur
Kelley Stoltz has moved away from the "lo-fi" tag with each successive album.
Circular Sounds is his lushest production yet, but it still bears
Stoltz's eclectic stamp, sounding less like the work of a conventional musician and more like the complicated workings of a record collector's brain. The disparate influences of
the Kinks,
Nick Drake, and
Brian Wilson all share equal space here, from the twangy, handclapped shuffle of "To Speak to the Girl" to the druggy harmonies and eccentricities that make "You Alone" sound like a long-lost ballad from
Brian Wilson's
Smile. If
Stoltz hasn't fully graduated to hi-fi status yet, he's certainly headed that way, and even the album's quietest songs have the sort of Technicolor production that sounds rich without threatening the creator's D.I.Y. cred. "Gardenia" is a rainy-day ballad with attitude, revolving around a saucy riff that
Stoltz doubles on piano and acoustic guitar, and the gentle "Something More" employs fingersnaps and a harmonized melody that
the Everly Brothers might've sported. Then there's the album's first single, "Your Reverie," a straight-faced piece of garage rock that struts and stomps with a mix of organs, double-tracked vocals, and guitar fuzz. Like the rest of the album, "Your Reverie" is purposely reminiscent of the '60s -- not in the way that
Panda Bear's
Person Pitch reinterpreted the decade for 21st century listeners, but in a reverent manner that closely imitates
Stoltz's influences.
Circular Sounds is altogether smoother than the musician's previous work, but it's far from slick, packed with enough grit (note the slightly off-key horns in "Everything Begins") to set itself apart from the retro-rock catalog. ~ Andrew Leahey