Brad Laner's Natural Selections

Brad Laner as many of you may remember was in integral part of Medicine back in the 90’s. That was almost twenty years ago and since that time; the guy has made more music, founded more bands and kept busier than Bill Gates at a Windows 7 help desk. To say this guy has had a prolific career would be an understatement and the fact that he continues undaunted year after year is a tribute to his talent and ability as a songwriter. His latest album, Natural Selections only goes on to prove that point by showing that Laner still has a remarkable ability to create dreamy, lazy pop tunes.

Natural Selections is his umpteenth solo record and hovers somewhere between a post-shoegazing hangover and some sort of blissed chill out guitar journey. It's quizzical, lazy stuff that's sun kissed and loving it and is perhaps, a bit more musical and tuneful than his last release, Neighbor Singing. While that was a psychedelic album, it seemed to be missing the strange sense of charm that Natural Selections possesses. While there can be no doubt that Natural Selections contain psychedelic flourishes it never loses sight of its pop sensibility. As Brad Laner is quoted as saying, Natural Selections, "Is a simulacrum of what the band of my dreams sounds like." What a band it would be with racks and racks of effects, hazy ambient influenced vocals and songs that seem like the perfect soundtrack to every lazy river ride on the planet.

Brad Laner has constructed, played, dreamed and built each of these songs with a hazy remembrance of past glories and fame yet to come. The songs sound as if they are wavering in and out of consciousness and seem to slowly creep their way by in a mesmerizing haze of guitar riffs and barely there vocals. If shoegazing died a premature death somewhere around 1993, someone clearly forgot to tell Laner who clearly is still in love with effects pedals as he is psychedelic songcraft. Natural Selections is a nice listen that comes off as the perfect blissed out Sunday morning record that so many chill out records want to be. This is spacey music for a journey into the sun that might take a million years but would manage to be the greatest trip ever.

If you worship the sun, lazy days, and pop songs that sound as though they just woke up than Brad Laner's Natural Selections will put a smile on your face.