After a couple albums with his excellent Bigmouth band, Chris Lightcap is back with a new album and band, Superette. Lightcap plays bass guitar exclusively on this recording, joined by bandmates Jonathan Goldberger and Curtis Hasselbring on guitars (panned right and left, respectively) with Dan Rieser on drums and both Nels Cline and John Medeski guesting on a handful of tracks. Superette is definitely more of a rock-leaning group than Lightcap has led in the past, but the writing for the band is superb. The songs don't really feature any prominent soloing, except from Cline and Medeski when they appear. There's certainly some great playing going on, like the ripping guitar at the end of "Calling on Cars," but the focus really seems to be on the atmosphere and interplay of the instruments, not flashy solos. The choice of covers also leans toward the rock end of the spectrum: a rocker from Link Wray and a couple pretty songs from Neil Young and notorious oddball Skip Spence (!). A couple tracks have a bit of an African influence ("She Walked In" and "Djali"), and "Frozen Bread" is a jagged funk tune. "Far Away Planet" has a great bassline reminiscent of "Maneater" and features some great playing from Medeski and Cline. "Calling on Cars" and "Birds" have excellent up-front basslines, but again the focus on this album is really the tunes themselves. Lightcap's and Hasselbring's originals are all really strong, and the covers are well chosen and certainly off the beaten path. Superette is a great new album and promising new band from Chris Lightcap.
© Sean Westergaard /TiVo