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TWO WAY MONOLOGUE
(Astralwerks)
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Savoring the artistry of Sondre Lerche is like watching a bird glide along an updraft, flying without ever flapping. Not only does the Norwegian singer-songwriter aim for transcendence, he often achieves it with effortless grace. And he’s only 22. Such facility would be maddening if the material on this, his second full-length, weren’t so seductive. Despite lyrics that belie Lerche’s preoccupation with relationships gone awry, he tosses off lines like "Down came the sky/And all you did was blink" ("Track You Down") with cheery nonchalance rendered in a featherweight voice that slips in and out of falsetto. As in the work of acknowledged influences Paddy McAloon (Prefab Sprout) and Van Dyke Parks, hints of vintage American musical theater shade both his delivery (the plucky turns of phrase in "On the Tower") and the arrangements on these 12 laid-back tunes, which Lerche and his cohort further punctuate with a check list of essential classic pop gestures: multi-tracked vocal harmonies à la the Beach Boys; Burt Bacharach–style brass choruses. Impeccable craftsmanship helps keep Two Way Monologue aloft for 48 minutes, but it’s Lerche’s gifts as a writer and performer that give the set its wings.
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