Jonathan Bree "Sleepwalking" (2018) ****1/2

I'm not familiar with Jonathan Bree's previous work (including two solo albums and four albums with the band The Brunettes), but based on the strength of his new LP, Sleepwalking (2018), I am very interested. On his latest, Bree blends 60s pop a-la Serge Gainsbourg (listen for a sample of his on the last track) with modern recording techniques to near perfection. Piano, synths, glockenspiel, strings, and bass drive the songs; guitar is almost completely absent. Bree's distinctive baritone lays nicely over the textures, crooning longingly—somewhere between the depths of despair and the heights of ecstasy.

For fans of darkly tinged pop in the vein of Serge/Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air, Beck, Massive Attack.