Sonny Baker's latest work, mangled in the front packs a lyrical punch with a side of soft-strums and hazy, warm acoustics. His words come with a hint of satire comparable to the repertoire of Ugly Casanova (whose front man is Isaac Brock), focusing on what appears to be grotesque and unruly to the 'norm' but what is actually quite beautiful and worthy of exploration. Take the titular track, "mangled in the front (realigned in the back)"and meditate on the provocative visual image. It's the right amount of wit to describe that feeling of outward dishevelment versus an inner peace. It's like letting your hair go long and wild, shoes ripped, face sweaty and being so happy to not give a care.
Baker upholds this throughout each verse and is consistent in the ideas holding them up. There's few elements at play, musically, acoustic on high with minimal percussive tones, but the songs aren't as passive as they float by. For instance, track two, "it's always crowded" begins with a subtle, easy going acoustic and takes recordings of snaps and claps to guide the way and "put your phone down" features a subtle hoot and wood block ticks that gives the song a gentle reverberation.
In contrast to the pace of each song are the inventive lyrics, which could easily stand on their own because of their poetic quality. Lines like, "all this time goes by/making all these pleasures much harder to give", "I don't know what I'd do for you/ but I'd rather be asleep," "all your fears be comin', an opportunity" blend the mundane with the epic and describe important moments with a casual humor that is refreshing to absorb. Baker will be playing on the bill with Crows & Jays at Babeville February 22--give it a shot and treat yourself.
