San Diego’s Rafter, otherwise known as Rafter Roberts, concocts little, brilliant nuggets of off-kilter pop with an experimental spirit. No two songs on Rafter’s new album XYZ sound alike and ideas aren’t repeated as the album exhibits a real flash of originality blending Beatles, XTC and Queen influences with electro pop and really inventive rhythms and texture. Tossing a bit of R&B into the mix as well, XYZ is a super fun album that should be a true delight to all pop fans who appreciate out-of-the box thinking.
Pick up the album this Friday, October 28th, and marvel at Rafter’s many musical gifts.
Rafter tells PopMatters, “It’s weird to make art! Nothing else feels like it can explore the mystery of life to me, so it’s near infinitely compelling — with XYZ I’m trying to reconcile the whole mess of it. Love for beauty and fun, laughter, harmony, but also complete obliteration and noise and decay — that seems like the heart of life, whatever we’re experiencing here on spaceship earth, and this collection of songs is obsessed with the contradictions, tragedies, beauties, disaster/majesty of life. It’s so real to be overwhelmed every second with the true gorgeous glory and horror of nature and consciousness.”
TRACK LIST
01. I’ve Done the Strangest Things
02. Lonely World
03. You Are the Last of Your Kind
04. Life Like
05. Oblivion
06. The Things I’ve Learned For Reggae
07. When I Die I Wanna Get Some of My Blood on Them
08. Rafter vs. Mai Mai
09. We Could Be Monsters
10. Weird Animal