From the opening "And Your Bird Can Sing" guitar figure and the sweet, keening sadness of the lead vocal onward, "Pressing Mesh," the opening track on 2019's There Is No Feeling Better, makes it clear that Mike Adams is a pop savant of the first order. The rest of the fourth album from his project Mike Adams at His Honest Weight does absolutely nothing to dilute the power of a stellar opening track, and Adams is clearly a guy with an uncommon talent for writing great pop tunes and giving them shape in the studio. While power pop fans will doubtless dig There Is No Feeling Better, that's not exactly what Adams is doing here. He has a fine way with a melody and a hook, but these songs travel at a comfortable mid-tempo pace, and the production and arrangements reflect not a spunky guitar-based sound that could be recreated on-stage but rather a polished confection with layers of guitar, keys, occasional horns and strings, and banks of backing vocalists to give the performances depth and texture. There are moments where Mike Adams sounds like he could be the less-cheerful Emitt Rhodes of the Midwest (like Rhodes, Adams is a multi-instrumentalist and he plays most of the parts on these sessions), and the craft of his songwriting and the skill set of his performances are genuinely impressive throughout, while co-producer Adam Jessup helps to give this album a focus and coherence that serves his strengths well. There Is No Feeling Better lives up to the canny double meaning of its title; most of these 11 songs depict a man who has been disappointed in life and love, but the frothy joy of the music makes the music irresistible to practically anyone with a fondness for the golden era of pop music in the 1960s and '70s. Mike Adams has been a cult favorite since his days with the group Husband & Wife, and There Is No Feeling Better demonstrates that it's high time his following became larger and more widespread -- his talent is certainly deserving of it.
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