If Ross Goldstein‘s new album, Blunders, sounds very different from his previous works, it’s unsurprising. After releasing a trio of Mellotron-heavy ambient/experimental records – The Eighth House (2018), Timoka (2020), and Chutes and Ladders (2021), the singer-songwriter fell out of touch with friends and began experiencing depression, living out of a suitcase and staying in motels. Entering the recording studio of punk legend Wreckless Eric, he began working on his new album with a new sense of purpose.
The result contains its fair share of darkness and sadness. However, there’s also warmth and happiness, not to mention a stylistic shift incorporating psychedelic pop, acoustic-strummed Americana, and just enough odd moments to keep it an engaging listening experience. Direct influences cited on Ross Goldstein’s Bandcamp page include the Beach Boys‘ moody Holland, Neil Young‘s On the Beach, and even the Dennis Wilson cult favorite, Pacific Ocean Blue. There’s an inherent silliness, almost a Jonathan Richman-level naivete, to the country-tinted opening number, “Slippers”, which glides along on a folky shuffle but is complemented by psychedelic guitar and keyboard washes that give the track a lovely texture.
Blunders hangs together beautifully as a complete album, but there are plenty of zig-zags. The sunny, 1960s-style pop of “Odd Man Out” is infectious and countered by quirky, synth-heavy delights like “I Forgot to Comb My Hair”. But there’s also a downbeat quality to songs like “Foggy Blues”, recalling both Neil Young and Thom Yorke in their ability to give a dark quality to folk. The strange, mysterious “Ticker Tape” includes female spoken word over choppy chords, and the instrumental “The Village” is an eloquent instrumental tribute to Catskill, New York, where the album was recorded.
It’s interesting to hear Goldstein move from that love letter to the Hudson River Valley and then hit us with the deceptively poppy “The Swimmer”, whose bouncy beat is matched with lyrics like “Nobody answers as I keep knocking on the door / I am swimming in my tears as the credits roll / Nobody home.” It could be viewed as a sort of catharsis, Goldstein reflecting on his dark past while he’s presently in a better place.
Throughout Blunders, Goldstein has achieved something of a rebirth, bouncing back with a sound that is coherent but cracked, at times embracing the melody and inventiveness of the best pop music but still unusual and daring enough to stand out.