James Brant - Strange By Design (Sweaty Dog)

James Brant is a singer/songwriter from Philadelphia, PA. A member of bands like Transient and the current Couple Days, Brant has recently struck out on his own and released his first album, Strange By Design. A properly solo effort, all of the instrumentation is recorded by Brant at his own home studio, and echoes of musicians like Ben Gibbard and Glen Phillips. Incidentally, there is a wonderful homespun feel to the record, and it plays like a private invitation to a day at his house listening to him sing his little hymns to you and you alone.

Like Paul McCartney’s early RAM album, Strange By Design seems like a music intended for an audience of no one except for himself. Songs like “Flood” and “Know You” are so quaintly intimate, it almost feels like you are intruding. Yet the songs for the most part don’t tread to far on roads dark and off the beaten track. Brant has a wonderfully sunny, if only a little melancholic, disposition, making for some of the most aesthetically pleasing folk music in a long time. Strange By Design is out now on Sweaty Dog Records.