Lamp Lit Prose arrives 17 months after Dirty Projectors’ eighth, eponymous album, which dwelt, via the medium of knotty R&B, on the breakup of former Projector Amber Coffman and linchpin David Longstreth. You deduce he’s over it.
Brighter, brassier and more free-flowing than most previous outings, Lamp Lit Prose can seem cussedly happy at times: there’s “Something sweet/ Something new” on Blue Bird, a song so blithe you could see Longstreth plying it on kids’ TV. He turns 23rd-century soulman on What Is the Time, as near to a conventional hit as this prodigious guitarist and fusioneer has essayed.
If the heady jangle of new love can recall two songs played at once, then Longstreth is on the money on I Found It In You, which makes polyrhythm origami out of infatuation. A phalanx of 00s notables (Fleet Fox Robin Pecknold and former Vampire Weekender Rostam Batmanglij) and newer friends (Syd from the Internet on Right Now, Haim on the acoustic guitar tune That’s a Lifestyle) offset Longstreth in turns, adding to the lawn party vibe. You would not start here if you were new to this ear-boggling band, but Longstreth remains a singular talent.
