Stephen Flint - Onanmatopoeia

 

This is something of a back to the future as the album was released in November 2020. I can be forgiven though as Onanmatopoeia features a collection of recordings from between 1992 and 2001. I've been meaning to feature it for a while, put it down to my aging mind that I kept forgetting.

This is the Intelligent Pop that I love and crave. It belongs in a select group that normally get lumped in with Power Pop or Pop Rock, but should really be in a category of its own with the likes of XTC and Game Theory, maybe even Robyn Hitchcock. It isn't that the album sounds like those mentioned, it just inhabits similar space.

Recorded on 8 Track in the days before it became the norm digitally. The sound and production is incredibly good bearing in mind that there was no computer trickery around to make the thing sound like it was recorded at Abbey Road. 

Boston's Stephen Flint as gathered a selection of his recordings that are a delight, incredibly listenable and wonderfully inventive. The overall opinion that you come away with is what an incredible collection. Imagine what the guy could do in a studio.

From the gentle obviously one man gentleness of Gotta Get Some to the mesmerising piano on the almost Toytown on Bad Photography, Onanmatopoeia is wall to wall goodness. Life Is A Funny is very Ben Folds whilst Just Another Eddie Vedder is very 90's Indie, like a Matthew Sweet demo maybe.

Wide Open Hole is superb Psych Pop with the Pop bursting to get out and Gotten To sounds very XTC Big Express era. The real pop gem though is I'm Gone, piano pop of the highest order. There is so much to like here that I am really impatient to hear more from Flint. Highly Recommended!

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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