THE DANMAN CAN

1.    Osees   Intercepted Message **** 2.    Jessie Ware   That! Feels Good!   **** 3.    The Damned   Darkadelic **** 4.    Alison Goldfrapp   The Love Invention **** 5.    Fever Ray   Radical Romantics **** 6.    The Chemical Brothers   For That Beautiful Feeling  **** 7.    Jaakko Eino Kalevi   Chaos Magic **** 8.    Peter Gabriel I/O  **** 9.    DJ Shadow   Action Adventure   **** 10. Blonde Redhead Sit Down For Dinner  **** 11. The Hives   The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons   ***1/2 12.  Metric   Formentera II   ***1/2 13.  The Go! Team   Get Up Sequences Part Two   ***1/2 14. Foo Fighters   But Here We Are   ***1/2 15.  Queens Of The Stone Age   In Times New Roman...  ***1/2 16. Allen Epley   Everything ***1/2 17.  Jonathan Bree   Pre-Code Hollyw...

1.    Hum   Inlet  ****1/2 ( Review ) 2.    Jessie Ware   What's Your Pleasure?  ****1/2 ( Review ) 3.    Jonathan Bree   After The Curtains Close   ****1/2 4.    Shiner   Schadenfreude  **** ( Review ) 5.    Deftones   Ohms  **** 6.   Public Practice   Gentle Grip   **** ( Review ) 7.    Moaning   Uneasy Laughter   **** ( Review ) 8.    Maserati   Enter The Mirror  **** 9.   …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead   X: The Godless Void And Other Stories  ****  ( Review ) 10.  Osees   Protean Threat   **** 11.  Run The Jewels   RTJ4  **** 12.  Nine Inch Nails   Ghosts V: Together  /   Ghosts VI: Locusts   **** ( Review ) 13.  My Morning Jacket   The Waterfall II  ***1/2 14.  Artificial Pleasure   A New Joy  ***1/2 ( Review ) 15....

1.    Artificial Pleasure   Artificial Pleasure   ****1/2 ( Review ) 2.    Jonathan Bree   Sleepwalking  ****1/2 ( Review ) 3.    Parquet Courts   Wide Awake!   **** ( Review ) 4.    Beach House   7  **** ( Review ) 5.    Chromeo   Head Over Heels  **** ( Review ) 6.    A Perfect Circle   Eat The Elephant   ***1/2 ( Review ) 7.    Mirah   Understanding   ***1/2 ( Review ) 8.    Metric   Art Of Doubt  ***1/2 ( Review ) 9.    Interpol   Marauder   ***1/2 ( Review ) 10.  Poster Children   Grand Bargain!   ***1/2 ( Review )

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 .