Temporary Time＜Electric Blue Vinyl＞

Roger Sellers first album since 2019s Drastic Measures -- his Billboard dance-charting second album as Bayonne -- Temporary Time was born of a period that not only included the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic but a family cancer diagnosis. Giving rise to depression, these experiences made him think differently about collaboration, and whereas his first two Bayonne albums were self-produced, Temporary Time found Sellers working with producers/mixers Jon Joseph (LANY, Gothic Tropic) and Danny Reisch (Shearwater, Local Natives) as well as longtime drummer Matt Toman. While some of the lyrics reflect a melancholy state of mind, the lush, giddy textures the project is known for persist, a fact made evident on opening track "Must Be True," which kicks things off with a (gentle) needle drop and swaying arpeggiated piano. The songs soft landing is accompanied by Sellers trademark clement, multi-tracked vocals as they deliver self-conscious lines like "Im not supposed to be someone like me/I shouldnt have mentioned Im sorry," as part of a spaceflight analogy. Its slow build adds layered melodic guitar and keyboard hooks, echoing clap-like samples and mallet percussion, and still more keyboard voices before thudding drums finally join the growing expanse around the midway point. While that song acts as a intro of sorts, he soon gets a dance party going with "Right Thing," even if its a restrained, midtempo one with continued themes of self-doubt. Later, songs like the anthemic "Words" bring enlivened, serpentine basslines into play as well as layers of echo that seem to bounce off the auditorium ceiling and walls. Here, even a song called "Solo" is a soaring one, with string-like synth tones, galloping drums, shimmery guitar jangle, and multiple vocal lines in play. Closer "Tabitha" is the closest thing to an 80s soft-rock entry on the album but is still uniquely Bayonne in its sonic scope, leaving listeners with the feeling of having experienced something both intimate and spatially vast. ~ Marcy Donelson