Lincoln Jesser :: "Tops"

Try as I might to hate Lincoln Jesser's second offering, "Tops" with its winking gestures to the EDM community and wub-wub synth stabs, it is simply irrepressible. Tripping through the Passion Pit idea, Jesser finds himself in a universe of bold colors and sharp relief - Jesser starts the chorus with space imagery as one of the catchiest synth lines you'll hear in 2013 bobs up and down in modulated fashion behind him. Those notes, maybe there are four or five of them, are the soul of "Tops", the element that refuses marginalization. The imagery is heavy-handed (according to Jesser, we are "dice spinning around in space" and "tops spinning around on plates") but the music undeniable and satisfying, a major label sound from a guy who could, quite reasonably, dominate 2014, or your dance floor next weekend. As Jesser says, "ain't no time for common sense" as the dumbest drum-fill ever rockets you toward the first chorus. An obscenity, it is terrible and awesome at once. Who cares about criticism when you're having this much fun?

Lincoln Jesser :: "We'll Be Fine"

It is a feature of both the synthesizer fever of the past few years and the crippling hype of modernity that causes so many artists to look down at their keyboards and think, "Somewhere in you is the five note sequence that can rocket me to fame." But it's a pop math problem: In what order should those notes go? Which of those thousands of possibilities will be the magical panacea that will launch a career from the depths of a regional club scene, a college campus, or a bedroom. The dream proves powerful. Just ask MGMT, who largely made their career on the four or five note hook of "Kids". Progeny of Los Angeles, Lincoln Jesser answers the question immediately on "We'll Be Fine", a quick stutter-step of electro-pop that will remind the listener of the very excellent debut solo EP from the RAC. Of course, this is all a trope; we've all seen it before. But even this expectation does little to remove the charm from the ebullient hooks and subtle, creeping sadness of "We'll Be Fine". As Jesser sings, no matter the odds or the history of synthesizer pop, "still we try."