Stephen Clair’s Strange Perfume is a perfect homage to 1970s garage rock. Think in terms of the Modern Lovers or if David Bowie had gotten a crack at producing the Velvet Underground. The major thing separating Clair from those artists, and artists like them is the joy within his music. While there’s emotional complexity and variety across the album, Clair and his band, in general, sound happy and excited to be bringing his ten songs to life and that excitement is transmitted to the listener.
A lot of 1970s garage rock is defined by flat vocals. Clair’s voice is more compelling, though. There’s a flat affect to it, as well as a bit of a Tom Petty whine. But it also has a vastness that’s not often heard from that kind of singer. It works perfectly for each and every song. And the songs are the treat of the album. Intricately arranged without sounding fussy, they’re tough to slot into a genre, but register as fun and enjoyable just about as soon as they hit your ears.
Take “Digging My Ditch.” It’s a blues groove you’ve heard many times before. But Brad Hubbard’s baritone saxophone works against the beat, inviting Clair’s vocal to do the same. So you have this unnotable-yet-familiar rhythm disrupted and suddenly made interesting. Hubbard’s sax work takes center stage, sounding not like Clarence Clemons or Junior Walker, but instead like Morphine’s Dana Colley. It’s jazzy without being jammy or pretentious, which Morphine did like no other band.
“Oh No” has Clair sounding like Lou Reed, but with more range (which isn’t that hard to do…). The song features a sweet melody, and while Reed isn’t known for those, Reed’s Brill Building education taught him quite a lot about how to manufacture pop candy. Reed would have appreciated the construction of the song, with a metronome-perfect muted snare drum enforcing the rhythm while piano rolls through the song like a toddler killing time in a playpen.
Clair’s vocal on “Crown of Man” is reminiscent of Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner. The rest of the song is almost New Wave, with a pumping bassline that propels the track, deferring only to an intense chorus. “Mad” is anthemic, sounding like it was written for a 1960s girl group. The backing vocals, provided by Clair’s band, are celestial. The song bounces like it was recorded on a trampoline.
Clair isn’t throwback and that’s the beauty of Strange Perfume. It’s a fresh take on beloved music. Clair breathes new life into proto-punk, replacing the darker, maudlin edges with light. And where New Wave transformed that same kind of music with electronic instrumentation, Clair goes for a classic rock sound that feels natural.Â
