Fooler

Description

The title of the sixth album by California singer-songwriter Nick Waterhouse is much more than the name of one of his tracks. The Fooler is Nick Waterhouse's new album, and it means a lot. Recorded by Mark Neill (Black Keys; Los Straightjackets; Dave Cobb) in Valdosta, Georgia, it is a sort of song cycle, with the album's arc telling the story of a town and its inhabitants. The result is a record that offers new riches and fresh perspectives with each listen. From the hidden corners of "Hide & Seek" and the tour-soul of "Play To Win" to the primal, attitudinal two-chord thrill of "Late In The Garden," it inexorably builds towards the drama of the title track and the pulsating roll-and-rock of the final conclusion, "Unreal, Immaterial." Play it once and it immediately sounds like a collection of superb songs. Play it again – and you will – and it feels like a novel or a film slowly revealing its secrets, kaleidoscopic in its narrative complexity. "Especially during this album, I started to become what Allen Ginsberg called pure breath," the artist recounts. "I was becoming pure breath with my ideas."