After a couple albums with his excellent
Bigmouth band,
Chris Lightcap is back with a new album and band,
Superette.
Lightcap plays bass guitar exclusively on this recording, joined by bandmates
Jonathan Goldberger and
Curtis Hasselbring on guitars (panned right and left, respectively) with
Dan Rieser on drums and both
Nels Cline and
John Medeski guesting on a handful of tracks.
Superette is definitely more of a rock-leaning group than
Lightcap has led in the past, but the writing for the band is superb. The songs don't really feature any prominent soloing, except from
Cline and
Medeski when they appear. There's certainly some great playing going on, like the ripping guitar at the end of "Calling on Cars," but the focus really seems to be on the atmosphere and interplay of the instruments, not flashy solos. The choice of covers also leans toward the rock end of the spectrum: a rocker from
Link Wray and a couple pretty songs from
Neil Young and notorious oddball
Skip Spence (!). A couple tracks have a bit of an African influence ("She Walked In" and "Djali"), and "Frozen Bread" is a jagged funk tune. "Far Away Planet" has a great bassline reminiscent of "Maneater" and features some great playing from
Medeski and
Cline. "Calling on Cars" and "Birds" have excellent up-front basslines, but again the focus on this album is really the tunes themselves.
Lightcap's and
Hasselbring's originals are all really strong, and the covers are well chosen and certainly off the beaten path.
Superette is a great new album and promising new band from
Chris Lightcap. ~ Sean Westergaard
