Morgan Delt: Phase Zero (Sub Pop)

Quick question: How many young male singers who don't have a strong or distinctive voice use a light falsetto as their default setting then multi-track and/or wrap their vocals in clouds of synths, orchestration etc.

Answer? I don't know an actual figure . . . but I can tell you that this Californian is another one of them.

Soaked in psychedelic sunshine and dreamy drone-pop with that airy voice drifting past on featherlight melodies, this second solo album and debut for Sub Pop certainly knows its place in this day-glo world.

Unfortunately aside from being warmly charming, few of these songs stick in their own right so you are obliged to just take the trip and immerse yourself in the whole. Initially a piece like Sun Power attracts attention by erring a little more towards bantamweight power-pop but even that evaporates into the ether by the midpoint.

Delt knows how to arrange for maximum seduction, but by the end of these 40 minutes you might wonder where the album went . . . and you'l certainly be no wiser about whether he possesses a voice of any distinction at all. The evidence suggets not.

Exceedingly pleasant like a warm summer day, but – like a day nodding off around the pool between breakfast and cocktail hour – you have nothing to reflect back on to tell you where the time went.

Might make better sense in February when we roll out those lazy, hazy days of ssssffffft . . . summer.