Gregor - Destiny (2020)

Having come up through the minor leagues of Australia's bedroom pop system, Melbourne eccentric Gregor made his first official album with 2018's Silver Drop, a weirdly appealing set of offbeat but astute tracks that blended acerbic humor, honest introspection, and dashes of art-pop and post-punk. Although still a bit rough around the edges, he managed to transcend many of the D.I.Y. scene's lo-fi pitfalls and deliver something quite fresh and original. After another two years of seasoning, Gregor is back with his even slicker follow-up, Destiny. Citing the undeniably hip influences of Arthur Russell and the Durutti Column on his first set, Destiny finds Gregor ascending into the celestial synth pop tones of 1980s pioneers like Talk Talk and the Blue Nile. Amid lush, glowing synth pads, melodic bass lines, and sparse drum programming, he presents a hypnotic dreamworld of slightly askew observations, lending highlights like opener "The Rock (and the Stars)" and "A Shimmering Feeling" a disorienting sense of enchantment. With a frenetic energy, the album's midsection spins out into a wild streak of prog-pop experimentalism, from the thunderous synths and bright violins of "Senseless" to the dazzling pseudo-psych clamor of "Love Echoes Loud." Using his influences as cues more than pillars, Gregor stretches out creatively, exploring with abandon sonic touchstones from previous eras (bright late-'80s synths, picked electric bass, digital drum hits) and uprooting them into his own microcosm where imagination is king. It's an interesting, though not surprising leap from the more affected weirdness of Silver Drop, and a clear sign that Gregor is forging a distinctive path forward.