I am so proud of you. Your last album was fun, but it was so densely populated with pop cultural references that I usually had to lie down or throw up after listening to it. It got to the point where I couldn't tell whether I was experiencing your original music or a full-length media prank.

So I'm greatly relieved that your upcoming album, Sea Change, sounds like you've temporarily stripped away all that media ingestion and left a refined little psychedelic poop for us to poke at with fallen branches or rub on the walls of our friends' bathrooms in the shape of the words, "I CAN HEAR AGAIN!" Even the album cover is a neat little bit of business. It reminds me of that traditional late 60s - early 70s singer-songwriter album cover portrait. You know, the kind with the close-up face and warm light and lens flare. In fact, artwork on your album cover (well, one of them. apparently, you are releasing four at once - including one that's covered in all of those vespertine squiggles) reminds me of another sonic chameleon, David Bowie. Have you ever heard of Aladdin Sane? Never mind.

Everything I've heard on the preview area of your web site has made me think you've taken Prince's 3-disc greatest hits out of your CD-changer, and replaced them with Nick Drake, Skip Spence, Scott Walker, East River Pipe (wasn't "golden age" actually on the last east river pipe album? no? maybe just the lonely highway echoes? no? fuck me.), and Tim Hardin. And I'm happy with those choices, even if it further confounds the "styles" and "roots and influences" areas of your allmusic.com entry. Besides, with rise of DJs all music signifiers are already being layered so carelessly, heaped atop each other like a pile of receipts from The Cool Store, to the point of making them each seem meaningless individually. Too much noise. You were right to get out, clean your system, start new with a small handful of peyote buttons and smashed daisies. I'm sure you'll prove me wrong by releasing an electro hip-hop album six weeks after this one comes out, but that's what makes you so darn adorable.