Song(s) of the Day # 2,879 Pearly Gate Music

 

Trying to make lists of favourite records of the year in this day and age is a frankly an impossible tasks. For their will always be some album that will come to your notice late in the day that would, if you'd chanced upon it earlier have registered high on your rundown.

That's happened to me twice in 2021 and may still happen again before December finally draws to a close. First over the weekend with Cleo Sol's altogether lovely Mother now again with Pearly Gate Music's slightly staggering Mainly Gestalt Pornography.

This apparently is the return of Zach Tilman, (for he is Pearly Gate Music) after a ten year hiatus. Which makes the quality of Mainly Gestalt Pornography even more extraordinary. It's an enormously confident return. Confident Uutsiderdom you might call it. I was reminded of the likes of Arcade Fire, Phosphorescent, Beck and Kevin Morby. Not by the music so much, but by the utter stridency and assurance of every moment of this.

I'm not sure exactly where this is coming from, but I urge you to give this a listen if you care for any of the artists above. To quote from elsewhere: 'Tilman's music sounds as if it were written by whatever songs from the poor youth circuit were being sung after dinner in the parlors of his youth - and who somehow managed to supernaturally absorb the sound of Lubbock circa 1955, Laurel Canyon circa 1968 and Berlin circa 1980.'

In some ways I'm sad to encounter this so late in the year so I couldn't included it in my Album Rundown list for the year. It would have been Top Twenty for sure. But really I'm glad to have encountered it at all. On first listen, it's immediately clear that this is a wonderful and quite special record. I'll put aside a considerable portion of the next few weeks to enjoy it further.