“Replica” is more rhythmic and friction-y, its upbeats jolted in sudden stabs of violin, but it culminates in a melting chorus “You wouldn’t know if you looked me in the eyes,” which floats weightlessly from a tangle of striving overtones and counterpoints. The opener, “Unborn Capitalist in Limbo” sets the stage with a lilting vocal melody lofting upward, a sheath of echo setting it apart from guitar thrum and surging masses of string. Hanson himself sounds at times like long-lost folk hero Gary Higgins (the title track), at others like blues-folk Neil Young (“Replica”), but his songs are never as bare as these comparisons would indicate and surge off, sometimes, into movie-soundtrack lavish-ness. Violin, viola, cello and bass dart in and around the steady thrum of guitar, the emphatic crack of drums, like lush, organic tendrils reaching for sunlight. String arrangements by Heather Lockie add a Beatles-psych density and counterpointed intricacy to these cuts. The Unborn Capitalist in Limbo shines a light on Hanson’s fragile, near-falsetto tenor and folk-shaded melodicism, yet never isolates it. This first solo project turns down the roar and supplants it with swooping, vibrating string quartet embellishments that weave around basic tunes but don’t overwhelm them. The Upshot: Baroque folk from the trippy, noisy Wand player that feels utterly natural.Ĭory Hanson’s other project, Wand, bends guitar noise into seething, psychedelic shapes, letting distortion and volume transform trippy, 1960s-vibed melodies into monolithic onslaughts.
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