Anybody who is aware of Julian Cubillos as a multi-instrumentalist on different folks’s data – Workplace Tradition, Alena Spanger, and Christian Lee Hutson are among the many artists who’ve enlisted his companies – could be pleasantly stunned to know that he makes glorious data on his personal, and that his newest launch is his first in seven years. The brand new self-titled album finds Cubillos engaged on a barely smaller scale, but with compositions and melodies which might be shiny, advanced, and clever. Almost each music appears like a possible single.

Born in Los Angeles however primarily based in Queens, Cubillos final launched a file underneath his personal title in 2018. In Heaven, like its predecessor, Evil (2015), employed full bands that gave Cubillos a larger palette to work with. The brand new file is nearly completely Cubillos, apart from backing vocals from Spanger and Ivy Meissner (the latter his associate within the indie-pop outfit Little Thriller), in addition to contributions from Jason Burger and Levon Henry on drums and saxophone, respectively, on one music.

This nearly fully literal solo venture would possibly come off as barely claustrophobic in another person’s arms, however Cubillos occurs to jot down songs which might be brilliantly conceived and sometimes catchy as hell. The acoustic guitar-led opening monitor, “Returning”, is a scruffy, midtempo gem that Paul McCartney would possibly’ve tossed off throughout White Album periods.

That’s instantly adopted by the only “Speaking to Myself”, a hip-swaying slice of irresistible funk pop (accompanied by an totally charming music video) that brings to thoughts early Beck, each within the musical swagger and the up-front sneer of the lyrics (“And each different night time on the astral airplane / Your fuckin’ ass exhibits up within the pouring rain / Like a Roman god”).

That heat lo-fi funk pops up once more on “Worth of Guilt”, however in additional of a ballad mode. The nice and cozy touches that dot the music are lovingly, but incongruously, paired with a loud, atonal guitar solo. Nonetheless, Cubillos additionally brings some nice surprises, just like the breakneck, futuristic new wave tempo of “Fruit Stripe”, which appears like Elvis Costello on a space-rock bender. The laid-back tropical lilt of “Portuguese Bend” provides one other dimension, with Spanger and Meissner’s vocals lending the music an ethereal twist.

The loping power-pop of “Flesh and Blood” is one other spotlight, with sonic flashes of Harry Nilsson or possibly Wings at their easygoing finest, and Cubillos’ experimental stabs within the guitar solo and the added instrumentation of Burger and Henry rounding out the association like an ideal gem delivered proper to your native Nineteen Seventies AM radio station.

Whereas the album begins with “Returning”, the ultimate monitor, “Departing”, suggests a bookend of types. The latter monitor is a short, mysterious slab of experimental gestures, discipline recordings, and distant, warbled music that sounds as if it’s coming from a distance or by means of a wall. It’s an odd technique to shut out a file stuffed with irresistible earworms, maybe suggesting the start of a brand new, extra musically curious section? If Julian Cubillos creates experimental music in addition to pop gems, we’re all in good arms.