Veteran singer/songwriter and engineer
T.W. Walsh has been using drum machines in his solo work since his 1999 debut How We Spend Our Days, but his songs have always maintained a sparse, rootsy feel to them. On his 2015 full-length
Fruitless Research, his second recording for Graveface Records, he constructs full-bodied pop songs with atmospheric synthesizers, metronomic programmed rhythms, and bright yet understated guitars. His vocals are often coated in a layer of echo or thin distortion, and opener "Public Radio" is sung entirely through a vocoder. In some ways, his personality feels a bit more obscured than on his previous albums, but the songs themselves are a lot more focused, turning into lite new wave gems with a sleek yet ragged feel that occasionally brings to mind
Joe Henry. His songs remain a bit melancholy, but there's still a hint of wryness hidden in them, as the album's title displays. A great deal of credit for the sonic construction of this album goes to longtime collaborator
Yuuki Matthews, who helped
Walsh out of a creative block following an extended period of fatigue and dysfunction.
Matthews adds a lot of subtle production flourishes, such as some dubby echo and tricky drum manipulations, and songs like "Counting Cards" sound like a drowsy, low-key take on the retro sounds of
Blood Orange, but without attempting to play by the '80s pop rulebook as much. Closing number "The Glow" has a driving synth bassline and softly howling noises that would probably sound a lot odder if they were isolated, but the way they're mixed and blended into the song, it makes sense. On
Fruitless Research,
Walsh doesn't break out of his comfort zone so much as he expands it, embracing technology more than ever before and crafting his most immediate, accessible material yet. ~ Paul Simpson