FRED THOMAS - Changer LP

Songwriter, producer and general audio alchemist Fred Thomas has quietly dedicated years to constructing his own universe of strange and insular sounds. Most visible as a "brainchild" sort of bandleader with the experimental pop collective Saturday Looks Good To Me, Thomas also dedicated energy to a wide range of wildly diverse bands like the washed-out psych of City Center, scrappy dream punks Failed Flowers or the gentle duo Mighty Clouds with former SLGTM singer Betty Barnes.

Despite his tendency towards collaboration, Thomas often ended up with a surplus of songs that didn't quite fit anywhere else, which he'd record and offer to the public so casually no one could be blamed for missing them. These limited solo releases were approached more as an audio diary of hastily-assembled extras than proper albums, but something shifted massively with 2015's All Are Saved. Easily the most focused and personal album in an enormous catalog, this was where everything that came before it coalesced. The basement show urgency of his early emo bands melted into strands of previously explored watery electronics and orchestral pop, all serving as a backdrop for sharp, self-aware lyricism that felt both pained as an exposed nerve and subtle as poetry.