Caramel

Description

Taking his talents for strangeness and mood-making in a very different direction, Connan Mockasins second solo album is a far cry from the whimsical psych pop he made with the Mockasins, and pretty far removed from his acclaimed 2010 album, Forever Dolphin Love. Yet Caramel does take musical and thematic inspiration from that albums poignantly woozy title track, which Erol Alkan reworked into an indie club hit. Mockasin claimed that the story Caramels songs told picked up where Forever Dolphin Love left off, though this isnt the kind of concept album with a strong narrative thrust. Instead, he riffs on notions of romance and the kind of sounds and images the title Caramel suggests: the album overflows with sweetly sensual, acid rock-meets-R&B songs and guitars so languid they seem to stretch and drip. He does a better than average job of serving up and sending up all of sexy musics signifiers on the albums instrumentals, but its when Mockasin adds his reedy tenor to the mix that Caramel really gets weird. His helium-laced singing on Im the Man, That Will Find You evokes Weens homages to Prince and even some of the Purple Ones own oddities but the songwriting is traditional enough to envision someone like Bread singing it as well. Meanwhile, Do I Make You Feel Shy? recalls Ariel Pinks skill at making music that captures the awkward and funny moments of sexuality as well as the tender and erotic ones. ~ Heather Phares