NPR First Listen :: Jonathan Wilson’s Rare Birds

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/22/587248637/first-listen-jonathan-wilson-ra...

Wilson recorded this while working on other projects – producing Father John Misty's acclaimed Pure Comedy and playing on (and later touring behind) Roger Waters' Is This The Life We Really Want? The grand, ceremonial, Pink Floyd-ish opening of "Trafalgar Square" shows Waters' influence; but, by way of contrast, "There is a Light" has the pealing beat and organ-plus-piano ripples of the E Street Band, and a few of the album's multitude of hooks even recall "Rhiannon"-era Fleetwood Mac. The Waters ideas are more prevalent, however: in the caustic lyrics and the episodic songwriting, the swerving psychedelic synth leads and the deftly knit electro-acoustic textures. In some ways, this is Piper at the Gates of Laurel Canyon.