As the leader of the International Pop Underground and avowed foe of the Corporate Ogre,
Calvin Johnson
has spent nearly his entire career avoiding the mainstream of rock music, and even when he or his
K Records
label have crossed paths with acts with wide visibility (most notably producing and releasing
Beck
's 1994 acoustic effort,
One Foot in the Grave
), they've done so on their own terms, with little regard to commercial potential. So what is
Johnson
doing making a dance-rock album with one of
the Black Keys
and a teen pop star of the new millennium? Released in 2018,
A Wonderful Beast
was created in collaboration with
Patrick Carney
, who co-wrote the songs and plays most of the instruments, while
handles lead vocals, guitar, melodica, and keyboards and
Michelle Branch
(yes, of "Everywhere" fame) chimes in with backing vocals. The results meld muscular grooves and dance-friendly electronic accents with sharp guitars, keyboards that alternately run with and against the melodies, and
's deep craggy vocals. While this doesn't exactly sound like a bid for mainstream visibility,
is polished and professional in a way most of
's previous work has avoided, and it seems more accessible to unfamiliar listeners than, say, anything from the
Beat Happening
or
Halo Benders
catalogs. "When the Weekend Comes Around" has a good beat and you can dance to it, as does "Wherefore Art Thou," "Bubbles, Clouds and Rainbows" is an engaging anthem against the alt-right, and "Kiss Me Sweetly" and "A Wonderful Beast" are eccentric but full-bodied celebrations of love and desire. If this music is capable of filling the dancefloor, it also has just enough grit to avoid sounding slick, and
Calvin
sounds like himself as a singer and lyricist, fully engaged and ultimately uncompromised in his expressive eccentricity.
feels more like a partially successful experiment than a fully realized meeting of the minds, but
,
Carney
, and
Branch
complement one another better than one might expect, and this shows
is still game to try new things and push the boundaries of his musical comfort zone. ~ Mark Deming