Singer-songwriter Ned Roberts’s debut album, recorded in LA with producer Luther Russell (Richmond Fontaine, Noah and the Whale) is a warm treat. Roberts is a fine guitar picker, his melodies reminiscent of Leonard Cohen with lyrical nods to Bob Dylan, and his voice has echoes of Tim Hardin. Refreshingly brief at under 40 minutes, the album is full of little twists, as when the texture changes in See You Sometime, Roberts’s voice suddenly soaked in reverb and warm piano chords kick in, or when the cello starts up in I Remember You Said; the frenetic tabla in the otherwise ethereal setting by Roberts’s brother Barney of Oberon’s speech “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream creates a pleasing tension and harks back to late 60s experimentalism. The closing single, Blues No 6, a duet with Sarabeth Tucek, has already received airplay in all the right places.
