Fromthing Somethat [LP]

Fromthing Somethat, the tongue-twister title of legendary L.A. dreampop/indiepop foursome, The Black Watch's nineteenth LP, comes from a mistake front man John Andrew Fredrick made whilst singing a line from the song "The Lonesome Death of Mary Hansen." Cleverly self-effacing album titles have been a part of this serious band's aesthetic ever since 2011's well-received Led Zeppelin Five (along with such titles as "Jiggery-Pokery", "After the Gold Room", "The Gospel According To John", and "Magic Johnson"). This record hops, skips, and jumps from dreamy-floaty (the opening number, "St Fair Isle Sweater") to dance-y (the almost-disco of "The Nothing That Is") to majestic ("All I Know (Is That the Moon is Beautiful)" to dark/ominous ("Drip, Drip, Drip") and back again to dreamlike ("For Always Then To Keep" and the soaring closing lullaby "I'm Not Hung Up"). And yet it's all of a piece-a record that perhaps sounds like every 60's, 80's, or 90's guitar band you've ever loved and, well, unmistakably a The Black Watch record.