Puritan follows up with Come Sit By The Lake Tonight, and the new album answers a question posed by the last: 'Can I Shimmy?' Yes, he can.
Where How To Move A Piano drifted softly in and out like fog, Come Sit By The Lake Tonight jangles its way across nine sturdy numbers which manage to straddle a fine line between soft, acoustic guitar rock and synthesized funk. Anchored by Will Moore’s dynamic co-production, Come Sit By The Lake Tonight brings Hamma’s vision of Puritan to new heights.
'Blackmail' sets the tone for the rest of the record: sweet art rock with a jazz tinge and Hamma’s charmingly half-sung/half-spoken vocals delivering some gorgeous lyrics ('I thought my heart would lighten if I left it in the sun...'). While he’s as poetically powerful as ever, on the new album, Hamma’s lines are at times transformed excitingly from a beat poet’s to a slam poet’s: 'I remember when you hit like a punk/Now you just wait for the easy chunk,' from 'The Chair.'
There’s one of those late 60s sci-fi synthesizers that runs prominently throughout the album which, in moments, turns Puritan into a kind of Aimee Mann starring as Dr. Who (you gotta hear it to believe it). On another spy note, 'Morning Hair' is private i. music circa 1940: the sound of cool cats in smoky bars with just a bit of tension over their pool sticks. Here, Hamma emerges as the lone silhouette beneath a street lamp outside, lighting his pipe in the swirling city smog.
There are still some lovely lullabies in the bunch. 'Sanguine Arms' picks up where Mazzy Star left off (with a hint of country twang to boot), and 'Expulsion' is a lilting song awaiting its campfire sing-along. But what makes Come Sit By The Lake Tonight shine is that while it’s pretty as ever, it’s also direct – music you can dream and snap along to all at once.
Where How To Move A Piano drifted softly in and out like fog, Come Sit By The Lake Tonight jangles its way across nine sturdy numbers which manage to straddle a fine line between soft, acoustic guitar rock and synthesized funk. Anchored by Will Moore’s dynamic co-production, Come Sit By The Lake Tonight brings Hamma’s vision of Puritan to new heights.
'Blackmail' sets the tone for the rest of the record: sweet art rock with a jazz tinge and Hamma’s charmingly half-sung/half-spoken vocals delivering some gorgeous lyrics ('I thought my heart would lighten if I left it in the sun...'). While he’s as poetically powerful as ever, on the new album, Hamma’s lines are at times transformed excitingly from a beat poet’s to a slam poet’s: 'I remember when you hit like a punk/Now you just wait for the easy chunk,' from 'The Chair.'
There’s one of those late 60s sci-fi synthesizers that runs prominently throughout the album which, in moments, turns Puritan into a kind of Aimee Mann starring as Dr. Who (you gotta hear it to believe it). On another spy note, 'Morning Hair' is private i. music circa 1940: the sound of cool cats in smoky bars with just a bit of tension over their pool sticks. Here, Hamma emerges as the lone silhouette beneath a street lamp outside, lighting his pipe in the swirling city smog.
There are still some lovely lullabies in the bunch. 'Sanguine Arms' picks up where Mazzy Star left off (with a hint of country twang to boot), and 'Expulsion' is a lilting song awaiting its campfire sing-along. But what makes Come Sit By The Lake Tonight shine is that while it’s pretty as ever, it’s also direct – music you can dream and snap along to all at once.