Wiggle Your Fingers

Prior to the release of 2024s Wiggle Your Fingers, Brent Rademaker, the leader and sole constant member of GospelbeacH, announced it would be the groups final album, and when an artist declares in advance that their next release is their swan song, it tends to invite questions from the listener. Is Wiggle Your Fingers going to be some grand summation of GospelbeacHs ten years of making music, or is this just going to be their (or his) last batch of tunes? Wiggle Your Fingers doesnt play like Rademakers last word on his obsession with Californias musical history from the late 60s onward, but the lyrics do reflect a certain world-weariness, as if hes had enough of writing in the present tense, even as he lives in the musical past. "York Blvd." is a cynical depiction of wealthy hipsters at play, "The Dropouts (Parts One and Two)" is a crunchy rocker about young people who seem to imagine themselves more rebellious than they truly are, and "Its Too Late (Kellies Version)" is a sweetly rueful meditation on a failed relationship that seems to reflect an ennui about the larger world. If sixtysomething Rademaker isnt quite overjoyed with life in the 21st century, you cant blame him, and it hasnt adversely impacted his craft. Wiggle Your Fingers ten songs are canny and beautifully executed pastiches of West Coast soft rock, sunshine pop, jangle pop, and polished psychedelia, and hes even moved forward enough to add a dash of new wave to the formula, as evidenced in the slightly angular keyboards on "Second Chance" and the power-pop crunch of "The Dropouts." If you fear Rademaker may be losing his sense of humor, the title "Youre the Only One (Frozen Burrito #2)" should reassure you. Jon Niemann produced the album as well as playing keyboards, and hes given the material all the sheen it needs without going overboard, as well as rounding up an outstanding array of musicians to bring Rademakers vision to life. (There are few other albums that would feature former Jackson Browne bassist Bob Glaub and former Generation X guitarist Derwood Andrews, and make savvy use of them both.) Theres no telling if Wiggle Your Fingers will truly be the final GospelbeacH album or if Brent Rademaker was just feeling grumpy late in the production process. Either way, the man is a great songwriter with a rare gift for making his material work in the recording studio, and when he sings "Theres nothing quite like a song/That makes you want to play it all night long" in "The End," well, he knows how to make songs that do just that, and there are a bunch of them on Wiggle Your Fingers. ~ Mark Deming