With Sotto Voce’s latest LP, Safety, it’s mastermind Ryan Gabos seems to have finally perfected his brand of moody, sometimes drowsy, pop music.
The Pittsburgh native now holed up in Brooklyn (naturally), plays all of the instruments here, down to the programmed drum beats, and the result is a tidy satisfying collection of digestible pop ditties that swirl around long after you stop playing them. Residing somewhere between Yo La Tango and Elton John’s earlier records, the music from Safety comes off as uncomplicated, but clearly isn’t once you look into the lyrics and isolate all the myriad sounds Gabos has layered onto these tunes.
At 13 tracks, the music suffers a tad from repetitiveness toward the end, but there are enough moments of greatness here – unfortunate song titles aside (“Rhonda on Blow,” “Sexy May I”) – that earn Sotto Voce plenty of repeat spins.
SOTTO VOCE – Safety/13 tracks/Self-Released/2019 / Soundcloud / Bandcamp /