While not going full cosmic country musically on his latest, with Stellar Evolution Aaron Lee Tasjan offers some of his most spacey numbers to date. He also manages to dig deeper into an impressively varied collection of influences from New Wave and Glam to dance rock. And while Tasjan has always been celebrated for his lyrical prowess, on Stellar Evolution, he puts on a master class in blending wit with hard truths.
“The record became a sort of rallying cry for being who you are in a time when people literally wanna try to make it illegal to do that,” says Tasjan, “ I felt like it was really important to let people know that they’re not alone, that we’re all in this fight together and that we see each other, and that we’re gonna do what this community always does, which is come together and have each other’s backs.”
Whether it’s talking about blowing the baseball team captain on the sweet 80s-soaked “Horror Of It All” or questioning where in the bible it says, “I Love America Better Thank You,” Tasjan manages to be both subversive and spot on, giving voice to the maligned. You can also hear it on a song like the synth-heavy ballad “Dylan Shades” about realizing just how in love you are, making for one of the strongest tracks on the record. He also tackles addiction on the trippy, monotone “The Drugs Did Me,” a slowed-down take on Glam pop.
Tasjan made his mark as a modern folkie – though certainly putting his own spin on the genre – and you can still hear traces of that old sound throughout the record, but much like the ever-evolving Bowie from Hunky Dorie, to Ziggy Stardust to the more suave Young Americans era, Tasjan reinvents himself here -sometimes from track to track. The album opener, “Alien Sex Queen,” a fantastic queer-friendly pop number, sounds like something Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger from Fountains Of Wayne could have written, while “Cry Till You’re Laughing” is a song Harry Nilsson would have out his name on if he were alive today. The album closes on the somber but sanguine piano ballad “Young,” a converse of the song that opens the record.
So far in his two decades-long career, Tasjan has played guitar with Cheap Trick, started a side project with members of Blondie and Faces, collaborated with everyone from Sean Lenon and BP Fallon to longtime friend Lilly Hiatt, and turned in a handful of brilliant Americana/folk solo albums. Stellar Evolution is just the latest natural progression for the criminally underrated Tasjan.
