Arriving a year after the musically cosmopolitan Still Flying, a collaborative album with Bridget Kearney, multifaceted musician, songwriter, and producer Benjamin Lazar Davis dials back arrangements and stylistic variegation for his second solo LP, titled simply Benjamin Lazar Davis. With Davis deliberately reducing the presence of drums here to help draw focus to melody, the album still involves guest musicians like experimental drummer Ian Chang (Son Lux) as well as Kearney (Lake Street Dive), Joan Wassner (Joan as Police Woman), Alex Toth (Rubblebucket, Toth), Mitchell Yoshida (Edward Sharpe the Magnetic Zeros), and others. Working with first-time co-producers Luke Moellman (Great Good Fine Ok) and Lars Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist), he devises a spacious alt-pop that still makes room for off-balance textures. The set begins with an example of the latter, a treated piano that appears alongside breathy, high-range vocals, fluttery reed synths, and fat pic bass on the separation ballad "Snow Angels." While often romantically inclined, the front half of the track list holds the more playful entries -- the horn-injected ("you are my") "Medicine" and confounding "I Bet You're F*cking" -- before a more earnest second half kicks off with "Eleanore." A softer-toned acoustic guitar song, its occasional piano, atmospheric keys, and late-arriving kick drum remain understated as regretful, gentle harmonized vocals take the spotlight. The series of low-key if quirky love songs to follow are highlighted by the more ambitious, psychedelic harmonic structure of "Daffadowndilly," a song whose bittersweet vocal melody comes in at a stage whisper. With a playing time of just over half an hour altogether, Benjamin Lazar Davis soon closes with the sincere "In Between Lives," whose restrained orchestral pop ultimately laments conditional love, leaving emotions and the final chord unresolved. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi

1		Snow Angels
2		Nebraska Valentine
3		I Bet You're Fucking
4		Medicine
5		If You Want It
6		Eleanor
7		What If I
8		Remember
9		Daffadowndilly
10		In Between Lives

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