Air

AM’s new album, Future Sons & Daughters, pays homage to the Tulsa-born, New Orleans-raised musician’s diverse influences which includes Jorge Ben, Brian Wilson, Sergio Mendes and Curtis Mayfield, while showcasing his own songwriting chops, intelligent lyrics and psychedelic grooves into what you could call Future-Pop. A cornucopia of head-turningly unusual sonic colors and shapes that manage to stamp themselves on one’s psyche like they’ve been there all one’s life. The peppy, heavily reverbed jaunt along a minor-key melody and twangy guitar of “A Complete Unknown” has the slapback vocals like the Sun Records and John Lennon of old, and a peculiarly resonant way of being upbeat and lost in reverie at the same time. It’s the distant guitar twang and tinkling piano doubling on the verse’s vocal melody of “The Other Side” that establish the song’s connections with classic American roots sounds. On “Darker Days” it’s all string-sheened Philly soul, so pensive, sweet and slightly sad. An instrumental tribute to AM’s idol Jorge Ben pays indirect homage to the great Brazilian tropicalista, yet is remarkably free of bossa nova-type clichés.? AM’s debut, Troubled Times, was declared one of the “Best Albums of the Year,” by iTunes and earned him the title of “Best Singer Songwriter of The Year,” by LA Weekly. Television watchers have heard his music on shows such as Friday Night Lights, Big Love, Brothers And Sisters, The Hills, and more.