Baby Dayliner

For those who feel Har Mar Superstar isn’t absurd enough or needs to be more camp, Baby Dayliner is here for your amusement. A showman in the truest sense, he styles his voice after classic crooners like Ol’ Blue Eyes, Deano and Perry Como, playing debonair for the majority of his routine. However, his choice to back his vocals with monotonous Casio keyboard synth pop and programmed beats ruins any chance he had at being taken seriously. Given a decent backing band, Baby Dayliner could raise his profile, since he does play a convincing romantic from time to time. "Dead Ladies” and "Can’t Believe” show there is true potential on High Heart & Low Estate, like some choice Magnetic Fields tunes, but he doesn’t have the witty lyricism to match Stephin Merritt. His choice to close off the album with "Shah With That,” a rap song, makes it a bitter pill to swallow, just as you kind of get used to his romantico routine. The fact that he physically resembles both Kevin Bacon and Bobby Conn is scary, but if you’re into fun, camp pop, Conn would be the better choice, because Baby Dayliner is a little too confused about who he is.