Finally Free＜Forest Green Vinyl＞

Not counting the surprise pair of digital-only albums that appeared just ten months earlier, Finally Free is Daniel Romano's proper follow-up to 2017's confounding yet transportive country psych-pop missive, Modern Pressure. A philosophical one-man song machine, the Canadian indie bard's prolificity somehow hasn't diminished the quality of his work as he once again shifts modes, this time into tones of pastoral British folk and kaleidoscopic druggy musings that all seem to fit snugly within his ever-expanding oeuvre. However he chooses to present his work, Romano remains a man of many words, and Finally Free is no different in that respect. His heady stream of transcendental poetry spills out in myriad forms, from the rich earthen imagery of fingerpicked highlight "All the Reaching Trims" to the cerebral and sometimes tediously meandering freak-folk of "Celestial Manis." "Have You Arrival," the album's longest track at nearly six and a half minutes, counters its complex arrangement and drippy lyrics ("sweet pollens of love in a syrupy breeze") with a deeply engaging melody and exultant harmonies that make it all hang together. Of all the tracks, "Empty Husk" stands as the most succinct and affecting, accelerating slowly from its sweet acoustic refrain of "I won't be afraid," to a massive wall of distorted guitars and drums, to a defiant chorus of "no more darkness, no more." As far as openers go, it's a stunner and a tough act to follow, but as the title suggests, there is a sense of freedom in Finally Free that extends beyond its vanguard. Romano has always been a tough artist to pigeonhole, but there's a feeling here of having shed a few more layers and dug a little deeper into his psyche, and the results are frequently exhilarating. ~ Timothy Monger