John Grant

Though I lack the patience to verify if the new Midlake will really "grow on me," no effort at all was required to embrace a Midlake-backed debut by former Czars singer John Grant. The loose '70s vibe concocted by the band is steered into a variety of vistas, from funky to stately, by Grant's elliptical song craft. First single "Marz" is a perfect cosmic amalgam of Neil Young and David Bowie meeting at a Sugar Mountain Free Festival of Memory. Acid-witted goofs like "Chicken Bones," "Silver Platter Club" and the quietly incendiary "Jesus Hates Faggots" pull together the good-humoured crankiness of masters like Harry Nilsson or Randy Newman. Played straight, these songs could collapse into an AOR/MOR sinkhole, but the soft rock trappings are truly just traps for the emotional chess match played within. If there's more where this came from, let's have it, now.