As of late, many young artists have leaned towards more antiquated musical stylings to boast their musical prowess. It’s a cyclical thing – once what sounds new becomes an old trope, there’s always some relegated genre about to make a reappearance for the even younger to discover. While we wait for the next buzzband to adopt the smooth delivery of Steely Dan, we currently have the winsome pop delicacies of Henry Wolfe. On the surface, the melodies Wolfe performs with his five piece could pass for the slightly unorthodox methods of a young Randy Newman – he’s easy on the eye but his words are pungent, with the smarts to charm a middle-aged lady into liking him and convincing him to drive her up to Margaritaville. This is middle-of-the-road seventies pop of the highest order with a wink of nostalgia thrown into the mix. But the music is anything but ironic – Wolfe’s slick strums and pacific rhetoric are just a way to communicate the pains of unrequited love. So before some top line producer sequesters him for a string of Nora Ephron movie scores (or some quirky animated film about a couple of precocious kids), take a listen to his promising debut Linda Vista before he crosses over – then thinking about it, it’s plausible to imagine the whole family singing along to his memorable ditties.
