Lawrence McCluskey
loves jangle pop, which is no news to anyone who has heard his work with his project
Bubblegum Lemonade
(which most of the time is just
McCluskey
and his home recording setup). But the third
album,
Some Like It Pop
, suggests that jangle pop likes
more and more with each passing year. Stylistically,
isn't terribly different than
BL
's previous work, which is to say it follows the path of left-of-center pop music from
the Byrds
through the C-86 era to
Teenage Fanclub
and
Primal Scream
, but
's myriad obsessions seem better unified into a warm and melodic style of their own in this third go-round. The tunes move more gracefully on
, and the overall tone is more playful and a bit less self-conscious than it was on
's sometimes clumsy debut.
is still the principal creative voice on this set, but he does bring in a few friends to add vocal and instrumental flourishes, and the result is an album that sounds and feels more organic and comfortable than what one might expect from
, even on the tracks that only feature
. And while
is a considerable distance from wacky, there's more easygoing humor to be found on this album, as indicated in song titles like "Famous Blue Anorak," "Dead Poets Make Me Smile," and "Mr. Dreaming's Bland House." In some respects,
still sounds as much like a fan's project as a "real" band, but
has at least made an album that suggests he's a promising semipro rather than a hobbyist, and
is his best and most engaging music to date. ~ Mark Deming