Nicholas Krgovich - In an Open Field

The Guardian 60

(Tin Angel)

Sincerity can be difficult to fake and impossible to authenticate. Nicholas Krgovich, a Canadian indie veteran who makes crafted 60s pop, seems genuine enough, but there’s something of the hotel lobby’s dead air in his music, despite the son-of-the-soil lyrics. His breathy singing is equal parts Jens Lekman, Saint Etienne and Vic Reeves’s club singer, which undermines the teenage existentialism of On the Main Drag but suits the wide-eyed simplicity of Country Boy (“eating plums in autumn”, he coos, “that’ve fallen on the ground”). Nevertheless, Krgovich’s meticulous, subtle production is frequently brilliant, especially on Sad Am I’s pillow-fight beats or the multitrack vocals of The World Tonight.