Michael Johnson

The debut solo album from Holopaw multi-instrumentalist Michael Johnson, Nonsense Goes Wild is an incredibly difficult album to understand on first, or even tenth, listen. Only four of the album’s 14 tracks breach three minutes, and most lack any structure at all, instead shifting from acoustic guitar to electronic freak-outs and every stop in between. His vocal melodies can be fairly hit and miss, as can the vocals themselves, but many of the instrumental segments are so inventive and haphazardly intriguing that Mudslide manages to constantly stay afloat, never meandering off into hopelessly unfocused or amateurish territory. Like Animal Collective or Aphex Twin, there’s more appeal to the approach of Johnson’s music than actual hooks, and it does have some of the trappings of a debut that tries to impress but doing far too much. But many have much stronger criticisms against them than being too ambitious, and at this point all Johnson needs to do is find a way to focus his creative urges — something Mudslide proves he has no shortage of.