The first solo album proper from former Y’all is Fantasy Island frontman provides a rather different proposition than 2009’s low key release Awnings. The latter was wilfully avant-garde, a decidedly lo-fi maelstrom of purring vocal loops and mechanic samples which almost seemed engineered as a direct reaction to the effortless accessibility of YiFI. For me, it was an often misguided if admirably vast and playful collection of tracks, but it failed to capitalise on Stafford’s strengths as a songwriter. Thankfully then Build A Harbour Immediately manages to strike a perfect balance which will satisfy those looking for songs as well as those intrigued by his experimentations with form.
The best example of this balance comes from the fluttering feather like vocal loops of ‘Shot Down You Summer Wannabes’ which are the basis of the whole track and are then adorned with harder gritted teeth lead vocals. It’s not just a pointless exercise in excising instruments though; it’s a warm stuttering wall of neo-soul proclamations, the lead vocal swooning with purpose and feeling. Throughout the record it is Stafford’s voice which is his most potent tool really, something backed up by ‘Frederick Wiseman’, the other loops only number which is a no-tempo pop gem akin to the wavering epiphanies of Julianna Barwick.
Whilst Stafford’s strengths may often lie in the more esoteric, there is also a handful of more straightforward tracks which showcase that enviable song writing craft. None more so than opener ‘Fire & Theft’, a rampant mash of acoustic strums, a spine tingling tremolo riff and vivid lyrical imagery with lines like “The forecast says that we’re all dead and this house is going to heaven alone”. It builds its self up into a flurry of anthemic chanted ‘la la la la las’ whilst simultaneously crumbling in to a pile of swollen feedback – perfect balance.
The biggest surprise comes in the form of the grinding R’nB stomp to ‘Step Up, Raise Hands’, which would probably have chart hit written all over it if only it had needless auto-tune and a guest verse from a rapper. Oh well, it is still an insatiably catchy earworm and a massive thick underline for the albums variation in styles. It falls within the bracket of inscrutable alt-pop which you might expect to hear from someone like Kevin Barnes or Why? It’s definitely got all the components of a pop song but it’s just a bit weird or off-kilter and frankly all the better for it. Perhaps my personal highlight of the album though is the title track, a seemingly simple arrangement which mutates briefly into a grand cinematic etching of tortured processed vocals over a delicate guitar line.
Build A Harbour Immediately is a remarkably well rounded album which despite its carefree genre hopping never seems disjointed or in any way aimless. Rather it is like a journey which begins composed and relatively straightforward but gradually fragments and drifts in to more abstract territory. After all that is what any good album ought to be, and this is as faultless an album as I’ve heard all year.
You can stream and download via Bandcamp
