Wooden Cave (LP)

Queens-based songwriter Matt Longo (aka Thin Lear) has always been drawn to the stories of forgotten eccentrics but never haunted by their subjects. And yet, upon the reading of 1920's occultist Netta Fornario, and her misunderstood demise on a tiny island off of Scotland, he unearthed the inspiration for a surreal and ethereal collection of songs, Wooden Cave. Pulling influence from the insular world of Astral Weeks, the melodic adventurousness of Harry Nilsson, and the eclecticism of Shuggie Otis, Thin Lear creates songs existing on a sonic and lyrical island of their own. The result is eleven tracks sprawling from ornate, warm ballads, to psychedelically-tinged folk, to propulsive grooves, brimming with melody and heart. Wooden Cave, written for outsiders like Netta, radiates with a sonic glow that harkens back to 70's-era studio obsessives, familiar and surprising in equal measure, like a face from a dream.