Invincible

Jad Fair has never been especially concerned with living up to the expectations of others, and after two decades of celebrating the virtues of not really being able to play, it makes a certain sense that if he wanted to keep things fresh and unpredictable, he needed to get more tuneful. 2019's Invincible is the fifth Half Japanese album since Fair revived his long-running project in 2014 after a layoff over 12 years. And this edition of the band -- John Sluggett on guitar and keyboards, Mick Hobbs on guitar and percussion, Jason Willett on bass and keys, and Gilles-Vincent Rieder on drums -- actually knows what they're doing. They're not merely competent, they display enough fluency on their instruments that Half Japanese has evolved into a reliable, listenable, and entertaining rock & roll band instead of a group making a virtue of chaos. Of course, Half Japanese did chaos extremely well, but it's a pleasant surprise that they've managed to go in the entirely opposite direction and still maintain most of their essential character in their elemental but endearing melodies. (Though the off-kilter guitar solo in "Return of the Vampire" shows this band still knows how to make noise when the occasion calls for it.) None of this has changed how Fair writes his lyrics or sings his songs, but with his accompanists setting it all to music that a relatively normal person could enjoy, it makes his optimism and his more positive perspective on romantic relationships telling and effective in a new way. And for a guy who has been consistently cranking out material since 1980, Fair's muse has yet to run out of steam, and Invincible features 15 more meditations of life in which he celebrates life, ponders his infatuation with various women, and sings about his favorite horror movies (and as far as the latter goes, he manages to make Attack of the Puppet People and Return of the Vampire sound more interesting than they really are). The rock & roll underground is a better place for having Jad Fair in it, and in his mid-sixties, he's still capable of expressing his skewed but joyous view of life in a way that's funny, fascinating, and sometimes genuinely moving, and with relatively user-friendly efforts like Invincible, it's possible a few more people will pick up on what he has to say.