Singer/songwriter
Nik Freitas, lately a member of
Conor Oberst's Mystic Valley Band, issues his fifth full-length CD,
Saturday Night Underwater, through the Little Record Company, an imprint run by
Pierre de Reeder of
Rilo Kiley. Those associations may suggest the kind of music this multi-instrumentalist, who plays all the instruments on his records, makes.
Freitas has a light touch, creating warm, weightless pop tunes that are pretty, if not compelling. The music serves as support to his reedy voice, which he uses to sing philosophical, if somewhat elliptical lyrics. Romance with one or another love interest comes up, but mostly
Freitas likes to ponder the imponderables, though without getting upset about it. In the closer, "My Only Sail," he expresses a desire to travel far away from here, but as his mode of transportation suggests, he isn't in any hurry about it. ~ William Ruhlmann