Use The Tubes
Sondre Lerche - Phantom Punch.
Sondre Lerche devoted his last disc to a jazz vocal kind of thing, which suited his considerable range and even more formidable melodic instincts. (Duper Sessions also included a cover of Cole Porter's "Night And Day" plus a less congruous cover of Elvis Costello's "Human Hands".)
That was a logical enough leap from his previous calling card, 2004's "Two-Way Monologue" which is far too endearingly schizophrenic to be represented by some ill-chosen 30-second sample. I'll send you the dollar if you don't like it. But even if you know the chordiest of jazz chords and love the sunniest of A-ha tunes, it's tough to get out of your 20's without feeling the itch to pick up an electric guitar. Add to that urge the convenience of having an actual recording contract, and the result is Phantom Punch.
Lerche put his mind to making a power pop record, and a lot of this is textbook power pop. The problem with employing the textbook, though, is that sometimes the material winds up sounding, well, textbook. Such is the case with "Face The Blood", a manic four-guitar attack almost saved by a little dissonance in the verse, and -- oddly -- the title track, which is one of the least imaginative tracks, turning up a subpar (for him) melody and generic riff.
However, on about half the record, Lerche's core sensibilities hook up with this more amplified sonic palette to make beautiful music together. "Airport Taxi Reception" and "Say It All" plug in the usual guitar-pop tricks, and they work as well as they always do. But they sound fresh paired with more singular Lerche touches like his acoustic rhythm work, skipping a beat in midchorus, and the surfacing of his crooning instinct in a chorus. "The Tape" goes for full-on electric grooviness and hits the bullseye with a verse that careens into a swaggering chorus. Throw in some handclaps, and it doesn't really matter what the lyrics are (or aren't).
Lerche does catch his breath with "Tragic Mirror", which often sounds like a McCartney demo circa 1968 in the middle (not anyone could earn that comparison, but it's no surprise a Norwegian would). Speaking of the Beatles, "After All" is more lilting and lovelier, riding the gentle gallop of "Two Of Us" drums and a pleasant acoustic figure beneath a typically crafted Lerche melody.
You don't get many stylistic departures from 27-year-olds, and maybe we don't want Costello going all jazz or Lerche going all rock as anything more than an occasional whimsical excursion. That said, as someone who wears his affection for Bacharach's classic work proudly, I'd rather listen to Sondre channeling Elvis and Green Day than Elvis' project with Burt.