Basket Star [Cassette]

On Basket Star, the well-traveled New York songwriter and studio savant Adir L.C. epitomizes a new breed of troubadour: one who not only writes songs as he passes through but arranges and records them on the move as well. He assembled the record like a postmodern folk Bard, collecting and orchestrating tracks, sounds, and creative contributions to share on his way. A savvy folk-pop craftsman with a track record, Adir coaxed Basket Star to life as he moved from one ad-hoc studio to another: Brooklyn apartments and practice spaces, an aunt"s house in Vermont, a studio outside Binghamton, New York, and more.

Adir"s baseline sound is a heady blend of millennial indie: a freak folk earthiness meets the big-din symphonics of "collective pop,” with accents of tin pan alley, jangle, soul, and street corner brass band. The living-as-producing recording process lends Basket Star an accretive complexity but one steered by the steady hand of a veteran auteur, courting the chaos for its surprises and its fertility (with a big assist from mix engineer Aaron Adams).

The indie jazz ballad "Best Version (of My Short Life)” kicks off the record on a lush and sophisticated note. The standout second song, "Big Bad” as well as the strong single candidate "Pink Cloud” find Adir back in his deepest pocket—jangling, achingly melodic indie folk-rock. The gently rocking acoustic title track demonstrates one of his most striking gifts as guitarist and singer—an easy swagger that makes all this flowing musical richness seem unconscious, almost accidental.