The Whistles & the Bells, the moniker of acclaimed singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Bryan Simpson, returns with his sophomore album Modern Plagues via New West Records.
Suffice to say that Modern Plagues contains the kind of music that is the basis of Power of Pop’s existence. Pop music with power! Sophisticated musical & lyrical ideas populate these eclectic songs.
The discerning listener will discover several nods to chamber pop, Americana, progressive folk, electro-soul, etc all filtered through a schizophrenic avant-garde sensibility that references the likes of David Byrne, Jim James, the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy and Todd Rundgren.
For our money, the best creators never stand still when it comes to expression and they fuck the ‘formula’ as much as they can because the music means everything to them. Bryan Simpson definitely falls into that category. Bloody essential!
Listen:
Buy: Amazon | iTunes
… still there’s more …