Over the course of his tenure as
Har Mar Superstar,
Sean Tillmann has always looked backwards to R&B nasty-jam provocateurs like
Prince for inspiration, rekindling the fire of the classic sex jam while his contemporaries were reviving garage rock.
Bye Bye 17, however, finds the songwriter looking even further back, diving headfirst into classic R&B with an album that's more about soul than sleaze. With crunchy, retro production and a full band (including a horn section) backing him up, the album finds
Har Mar channeling greats like
Sam Cooke as he pours his heart into tracks like "Lady, You Shot Me," and "Everywhere I’m Local." While the stylistic change seems a bit jarring at first, the change is ultimately a refreshing one. Sure, the disco flourishes of 2009's
Dark Touches might have mixed things up a bit, but
Bye Bye 17 is more transformative than that. This isn't just an artist exploring his sound's roots a bit, it's a full-on metamorphosis, with
Har Mar Superstar transforming from a banana-hammocked caterpillar into a slightly more clothed butterfly. Even more surprising, however, is that despite how curated the album sounds,
Bye Bye 17 feels less gimmicky than a lot of his other work. For perhaps the first time,
Tillmann is coming at the songs from an angle that doesn't depend on the cognitive dissonance created by his sexual boasts played against his
Ron Jeremy-esque appearance. Instead, we have an album of straight-up soul-pop that once again shows that beneath his greasy exterior,
Har Mar Superstar has the heart of a soul man.