Mike Marchant

Mike Marchant's crystalline songwriting and lived-in vocals provide the beating heart of Widowers' psychedelic pop scintillation. With his solo debut, Marchant cuts that heart wide open and lets it bleed in raw, vivid colors. Tracks drenched in delay, contributions from his bandmates and the singer's distinctive whiskey-cigarettes-and-bubble-gum voice make for a decidedly unadventurous sound. However, Marchant — who wrote, recorded, produced and played almost everything — finally inverts the power dynamic so that his songs' content overtakes form, allowing fear, pain and confusion to shine through in his most personal lyrics yet. Comparisons to Brian Wilson might be hyperbolic, but tracks like "Surround Me" and "Lord, I Hope" (previously posted online as "Icicle Lifestyle") just might hold their own next to "Caroline, No" and "God Only Knows."