Pop music is so often considered the province of youth that the notion of a great pop musician making an album that cautiously welcomes maturity is something of a novelty. That said,
Mike Adams at his Honest Weight has never been a typical pop music act; led by vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist
Mike Adams, it's an enlightened variant on the well-established notion of the bedroom-recording advocate who creates his music with limited help from his friends and a whole lot of multi-tracking. As is frequently the case on his albums,
Adams handled all the vocals and instrumental work on 2023's
Guess for Thrills himself, with some post-production assistance from mixer
Adam Jessup, allowing for an uncompromised presentation of his sonic vision.
Guess for Thrills was written and recorded as
Adams was turning 40 and contemplating his role as a husband and father, and the music is a bit less rambunctious than it was on his early releases, though age doesn't seem to inform the cooly well-crafted sound of these sessions nearly as much as thematics. The music sounds grown-up, like the more melodic end of '80s new wave filtered through an adult-alternative sense of reserve, but with the same sort of engaging tunefulness that's
Adams' stock in trade. As the easy but not simple tunes play out, the lyrics ponder how he "wandered into the future" ("Basement Spacemen"), accepting the realization of just how much he's changed ("Every Choice the Highest Mountain"), making sense of life's increasing responsibilities ("Golden Rule Breakdown"), and the ongoing battle to find joy within it all ("Everything Nonstop"). The music may be less upbeat than one might hope, but this is his most beautifully crafted record to date, performed with confidence and verve, as the songs are bookended by abstract keyboard pieces, found sounds, and at one point,
Adams telling his daughter to play nice with the cat. It's that rarity, an album about adulthood that doesn't sound tired or steeped in regret, and it's assuring that the march of time not only doesn't rattle
Mike Adams, but even inspires him. ~ Mark Deming
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