Artist: Soltero
Release: 1943
Discogs: 3643391
Released: 2012-05-22
Label: Microcultures
Catalog#: MM004
Format: FLAC / Lossless / Log (100%) / Cue / CD
Country: France
Style: Rock, Indie Rock

Tracklisting:

01. Rescue (2:42)
02. Alegria (3:58)
03. Rider Sho (2:41)
04. June (4:12)
05. Wondering (3:59)
06. Bobby O (3:15)
07. On The Rag (1:04)
08. Mercenary Heart (3:03)
09. World Of Fantasy (3:14)
10. Enormous (4:29)
11. Teen Angel (3:54)
12. True Ox (2:42)


For 10 years, very discretely, Tim Howard has cultivated his talent with a nonchalance that is fit only for the best and has inscribed it in a line of songwriters whose records and names circulate slowly but surely. Originally from Boston (Massachusetts), the boy went to see whether inspiration was not to be found in Philadelphia, Paris or Central America, before settling in Brooklyn, where this 6th album was recorded. Once again, geography and history impress their logic, and a very New York-ish spirit traverses this great, casually elegant record: 1943 revives a flame that was extinguished with the last breaths of Luna and Silver Jews, two of the most flamboyant heirs of the Velvet Underground.

Whether it be the very immediate songs, whose apparent simplicity (agile guitar, dry percussion, lightly detached singing) makes one almost forget the inventiveness of each moment: the choruses of Melissa Metrick and the keyboards light up Rescue, the perfect opening for the record; a clarinet sneaks into the lush Wondering or into the instrumental On the Rag; vibrating organ and slide guitars give the finery of a very sweet dream to World of Fantasy. Soltero thus introduces small marvels, seductive as much in a drowsy fashion (Teen Angel) as in a more rhythmic one (Mercenary Heart and Alegria). With 1943, Tim Howard and his collaborator Alex Drum have put their names to a bedside album, half madeleine, half fountain of youth.