Brandon Can't Dance ‎– Graveyard Of Good Times (2017)

Graveyard of Good Times is the Lucky Number label debut of Brandon Can't Dance, the performance alias of Philadelphia's Brandon Ayres. A lo-fi musician championed by music scene-mate Alex G with a decade's worth of digital self-releases already to his credit, he wrote and recorded the album entirely on his own. The 16 tracks clock in at under four minutes apiece and dart through noise pop, dance pop, guitar rock, animated synth pop, and gloomier post-punk, often lingering in spaces in between. Lyrics have a tendency to keep it real in songs like "Headspace" and "Fuck Off and We'll Get Along." Wryer examples like "Rock Is Dead" and "Obligatory Star Surfing Song," which actually doesn't have any lyrics, are at least as common. Arrangement-wise, the album ranges from the delicate bedroom guitar of "Freak of Freaks," to the heavy distortion and drums on "The World Is Broken," to the humming synths and electronic drums of "Where My Boys At," with its early-'80s demeanor. "Don't You Want To" does a quirky version of guitar-noodling hard rock, but lead single "Smoke & Drive Around" is probably the most unexpected entry, delivering lyrics like "High five my friends/2 a.m./Where's my ride?" in an R&B falsetto over dancy electro-pop. While disjointed in a way that plays like a perhaps-too-extensive portfolio rather than something intended to be an album, the set reveals a bold and versatile songwriter as well as a performer and engineer.