Upon first hearing the new Pink Mountaintops album, Outside Love, I had to double-check to see just what I was listening to. Stephen McBean has transformed his "bad boogie ballin'" one-man band into an open-armed collaboration. The biggest reason for my surprise was "While We Were Dreaming," a sublime pacifier that eschews McBean's usual "blunted" guitar-driven arrangements. Here he still uses the guitar as the leader but does so with hushed restraint, allowing Sophie Trudeau (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Silver Mt. Zion) to shimmer with her elegant vocals.
There's basically little here to make you think this is Pink Mountaintops, but that's the wonderful thing about Outside Love, which is out May 5 via Jagjaguwar.
There's basically little here to make you think this is Pink Mountaintops, but that's the wonderful thing about Outside Love, which is out May 5 via Jagjaguwar.