New York's John Dunbar is one hell of a talented musician. From his singer songwriter solo stuff to the Guitar Pop Rock group output of The John Sally Ride and then there are Elvis Eno albums where far greater chances are taken and that is what you have here.
Dunbar is charmingly self effacing, sometimes too much so. My frustration is that has such variety should be far wider known. Most of us find social media a bind, but I do wish that his three entities had their own social media output. It certainly would make a difference to his career.
Dunbar's gentle melodic vocal suits all three of his projects, but it is with Elvis Eno that it really excels. Here his voice is multi tracked wonderfully and with I'll See Myself Out being so great a Baroque Pop album, the vocal arrangements are wonderful.
Put to strings, his vocal soars sting the wonderful arrangements. At times, it sounds a little 60s which was the golden age of the genre. These songs radiate due to their construction added to the aforementioned vocal and his trademark wit.
He has form for picking quirky subjects and unexpected twists and the work so well here. This is string orientated joy throughout. Unusually, for Dunbar, there isn't a Guitar in sight, which will of course be rectified on his next album.
No two albums are ever the same from the man, but Baroque Pop was a surprise to me, especially from a New Yorker. This is a very different album to tackle, it succeeds simply because of Dunbar's ambition and drive. A great listen!
You can listen to and buy the album here.
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