Jeffrey Novak – Lemon Kid
Trouble in Mind
★★★★ (out of 5 stars)
Like the late, great Jay Reatard and the ever-industrious Ty Segall, Jeffrey Novak elevates “constantly busy” to extremes. Since 2008, as a solo artist and frontman of Cheap Time, Novak has recorded eight underappreciated albums of snotty, hook-laden glam-punk – on Nov. 19, two full-lengths (one from each project) even dropped concurrently. Overkill, you say? Not if you treasure a hybrid of the Kinks, T. Rex, Roxy Music and Velvet Underground. Minimalist funk is stamped into the DNA of album opener “Endless Repetition,” while the sprawling psych-pop of “Heritage Towers” recalls early Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. Flutes, guitar snarls and epic feedback build “Pictures on a Screen” into one of 2013’s most underappreciated singles. But the jaunty, piano-backed “Now and Forever” represents Lemon Kid – and Novak’s evolution as a pop master craftsman – to a T. Orlando can get hip Jan. 21, when Novak and Cheap Time will tear Will’s Pub a new one.
