R Stevie Moore and Jason Falkner - Make It Be

The Guardian 80

(Bar-None)

Prolific doesn’t begin to cover the output of lo-fi eminence grise R Stevie Moore, a man who scarcely gets out of bed without releasing an album first. But of the 400 or so releases he’s put out over his career, few have been recorded in an actual studio, which makes this latest effort all the more intriguing. For it he’s teamed up with Jason Falkner, former member of underloved 1990s power-pop outfit Jellyfish and producer for everyone from Air to Paul McCartney. Recorded at Falkner’s own studio, Make It Be sees Moore’s idiosyncratic songwriting balanced out by Falkner’s polished, precise arrangements. It’s a combination that works surprisingly well, with the twisty melodies of Another Day Slips Away and the wistful Play Myself Some Music (a cover of an old Moore song with Falkner on vocals) reminding us that, beneath all of Moore’s eccentricities, there’s an uncanny knack for locating a killer tune. A certain tolerance for Moore’s loopier sound experiments and slam poetry skits may be required here, but for the most part this is an appealing mix of strangeness and sheen.