A multi-instrumentalist who took part in the Clearwater, British Columbia and Edmonton music scenes before relocating to Montreal,
Mitch Davis
worked as a sideman, producer, and songwriter for acts ranging from rock and avant-garde (
Elle Barbara's Black Space
) to hip-hop (
Cadence Weapon
) before pandemic lockdowns in 2020 afforded him an opportunity to work on his own music. A set of often kaleidoscopic adult alternative-oriented pop, the resulting solo debut,
The Haunt
, was recorded entirely by
Davis
alone. He even built his own equipment as needed, including an analog compressor bearing his name. Landing somewhere in the vicinity of
Jack Johnson
and
Steely Dan
, first track "In the Morning" gets things started with a nuanced broken-chord intro before settling into a bossa nova-adjacent acoustic-electric groove. Its autumnal warmth is well-suited to
' smooth and calming vocal delivery. Listeners shouldn't get too terribly comfy as instruments like Fender Rhodes and what sounds like vibraphone are added to the guitars and lo-fi drum loop, however, because
can be relied upon to make things at least a little bit weird. On "In the Morning," that takes the form of a mid-song percussion-and-horns break replete with introductory drum fill, struck objects, guiro (or similar), and warped, nonharmonic keyboards that transform the chorus into something funkier and quirkier upon its return. Most of the rest of the album continues in kind, with the musician venturing into improvisatory bedroom funk ("What You Say"), atmospheric instrumental piano ("The Fall"), and tenderer, more straightforward keyboard pop ("My City Life," an ode to pandemic-era dating apps). After the spacey and exploratory "Idle Days," "The Haunt" closes the album with a
Chopin
-esque instrumental and a minor chord that imply the trepidation behind hopeful lyrics. ~ Marcy Donelson