Mindreading

VINYL FORMAT. Mindreading is the new album from Singer. Singer were formed in Chicago in 2007 and released their first album, Unhistories in March of 2008, then set to touring around the world to promote their vision of rock and roll. And then…nothing. And now it's 2011. Mindreading finds (in mind's eye) Singer drifting away from the abstruse structures that knotted their debut, morphing into a distinct refinement of their former sound. Following the departure of Todd Rittmann, Singer is now a three piece band made up of charter members Robert A.A. Lowe and brothers Ben & Adam Vida. Singer still pops on Adam's abstracted beats, but this time, rhythms are keyed by analog synths and licks courtesy of Lowe and Ben Vida. Group vocals, a democratic fundament to Singer since the start, highlight the songs, at times fingering the languidity of soul music; and diverging in an exchange both restless and copacetic. These men are playing their songs-with-singing collectively, agreed in a new social music. The pleasure of experimentation underlies every direct move made in the name of pop entertainment, with different meanings and readings intact. It all lives as one. The changes Singer has undergone are ultimately natural; an amoebic evolution in sound. There is newfound energy here: Mindreading is a craft languidly jetting in the open air, equally composed of organic and synthetic elements, cross-pollinated, a next-wave hybrid vehicle. Thus altered, with fewer controls and expanded motility, this new kind of Singer advances through a widening pass of musical inspiration, moving into a smoother, occasionally broken landscape of melodic song and aural bliss.