Hudson Bell - Psychic Breaks (2021) Hi-Res

Ten songs made up of the classic storytelling and charming voice of HB that we've come to expect. From the dreamy, psychedelic vibe of "Seven Lives" to the haunting, mystical mood of "The Dead Sea"--throughout are dazzling and chilling moments intermixed with drop-dead lyrical lines and electronic weirdness adding into some seamless slant on folk electronic pop music, perhaps piped in from a distant star. Emotionally intense, with a deep reverential empathy for the human condition, it's possible that Psychic Breaks might pull you in again-and-again . . . maybe by the tug of a heart string, or maybe it's the pendulum of a mood swing, but most likely it's because you too now have the Psychic Breaks.

If the fecund ground of pop music is fertilized by earworms, Bell is a masterful composter. However, the ease by which the listener can be comfortable with Bell’s songs should not be mistaken for a lack of complexity. His compositions bridge this great divide between being completely familiar without having the slightest hint of predictability.

The same can be said for his upcoming album, Psychic Breaks. This is the first album Bell has performed on without any other musicians contributing, and it is also the first album with no guitar. However, Bell’s newest offering is still unmistakably his. Bell’s gentle but raw storytelling provokes the sweetness and sadness of the every day — those extraordinary feelings that come with ordinary, common experiences. It’s not that Bell is every describing something out of this world, but that he knows the world so well that his lyrical descriptions feel practically supernatural — particularly on his beautiful single, “Big City, Small World.”