I really don't see how an album this good slipped past me for so many months, especially given the volume of music I review here. A Wonderful Beast, out now via K Records, is one of the best things Calvin Johnson's done in ages. It's also an indication of a new direction for the Beat Happening front-man, and a remarkably direct record, even as if it's based around the sort of pop artifice that Johnson adopts so well as a vocalist at times.
A distant cousin to what Ian Svenonius is doing with his Escape-ism releases, Calvin Johnson is using A Wonderful Beast to both dabble in, and deconstruct, the Big Pop Song. Frankly, "Where For Art Thou", for instance, finds Johnson sounding a whole lot like Ian, even as Calvin adopts a more arch persona as a vocalist on stuff like "Like You Do" and the title cut. "A Wonderful Beast" is a bit playfully silly and sinister, but it is also melodic and insinuating in a way entirely removed from nearly anything Johnson offered up in Beat Happening, for instance, even as "Bubbles, Clouds and Rainbows" is an affecting indie-shuffle.
At his best here on A Wonderful Beast, like on the slinky "Are We Ready", or the lovely and heartfelt "Sand in My Shoes", Calvin Johnson blurs the line between the genuine and the ironic, such that a listener sometimes can't quite tell if he's putting one over on us. If his heart is on his sleeve, or even if he's just faking it with an eyebrow raised, let's hope that Johnson delivers more albums just like this one, because A Wonderful Beast reveals that Calvin Johnson is capable of delivering really sharp electro-pop.
A Wonderful Beast is out now via K Records.
More details on Calvin Johnson and K Records via the official Facebook page for the label.
[Photos: Tom Berard, Washington, D.C., 2018]