Understated bedroom-style pop songs given a few gentle tweaks in arrangements and technology are pretty common enough in the early 21st century among a certain indie rock mindset, and so
Michael Zapruder offers no surprises on
Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope. His calm voice slips softly among the reflective music on songs like "Happy New Year," with a cyclical, descending progression at its heart, and many more besides. But while he comes across as a steady journeyman here, he does so with skill and style, and at its best the album is simultaneously gently bounds-pushing and easily familiar -- the hallmark of all the best pop, even if he's not aiming for the charts. So the contrast between the smooth, string-tinged flow of "Ads for Feelings" for most of its length and the sudden instrumental breakdowns that then recombine into the main theme are done knowingly and for maximum impact. The album's longest song, "Black Wine," is a good example of his ability to splice styles -- at once a classic country blues in structure and pace, it's also sweetly and strangely floating in space, with the backing vocals on the chorus almost chilled -- while "White Raven," with its switch from calm to major-key swell (and some of
Zapruder's loveliest singing on the album) proves to be the album's understated anthem.