ATO Records In A Mood [VINYL]

Simon Okely is lost in time. Or at least, his songs sound that way: warm, near-whispered indie-rock love letters to the 60s and 70s rhythm and blues records his parents would play on family car rides down Australia's winding west coast, heavy on nostalgia and even heavier on imagination. "I try not to be too caught up in trends and what's popular in music now and just focus in on my passions, my influences," grins the Melbourne songwriter better known as Slow Dancer, whose 2014 debut Surrender was a melt-your-heart, Fleetwood Mac-with-Neil Young licks "pop postcard" from another time, another place. Returning in 2017 with new single 'Don't Believe' and a new album, In A Mood, due in June on ATO Records, Okely is aiming even higher on his new material, featuring a "more expansive, more ambitious" sound that's "less about the stories we tell ourselves when in love and more about the moods that can come creeping over a relationship" at any time. "It's a little more tasteful, involving new instruments, like drum machines and strings," says the 31-year-old, whose lush tales of new romance, awkward courting and "scraggly, mangy love that's fading and waning" have been striking a chord with fans of Mac DeMarco, Tobias Jesso Jr, Connan Mockasin and more. "Come as simple as the sun and as steady as a breath," sings Okely on melancholy new single 'Don't Believe' over a smooth, slow groove, tremolo chimes of guitar and heartbreaking strings. "Let the evening come undone, and the thoughtful take a rest," he sings on the track. His ambition with this new batch of songs and next chapter as Slow Dancer is similarly simple. "This has always been my journal, my love letter to the music I love. My concentration will always be on making the music that pleases me, and if it pleases other people too, that's also great. It's been a wonderful ride so far." Simon Okely is lost in time. You should get lost in time with him.