Market’s Also I Asked You a Problem Is Twisted Pop Perfection

Writing great songs is one thing. Wrapping those songs up in inventive, oddball arrangements is another thing altogether. Nate Mendelsohn has cracked the code to create unforgettable melodies heightened by a sense of the absurd, which only serves to increase the enjoyment of the songs. With Also I Asked You a Problem, Mendelsohn, a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, continues to release unique music under the moniker Market.

The follow-up to his 2022 Business transfer The Consistent Brutal Bullshit Gong, Mendelsohn refers to the new report as” a personal perspective of music music”, and he infuses his deeply felt music with plenty of glitches, theater talk, samples, and unusual choices of equipment. One gets the impression of a loner brilliance on par with Todd Rundgren or Brian Wilson when one listens to the recording. While he’s credited with singers, guitarists, synths, keys, kits, clarinet, drumming, and generation, Mendelsohn is joined by a number of other players, including Stephen Becker, Duncan Standish, and Katie von Schleicher, among people. Known as a producer and engineer, Mendelsohn has worked with the likes of Frankie Cosmos, Dougie Poole, Vagabon, Sam Evian, Lady Lamb, and Office Culture ( mixing the latter’s brand-new record, Enough ).

The name track kicks things off in a beautiful, cheerful manner, with melancholy strings, special harmonies, and excellent pop touches. Front-loading the record this way is reminiscent of Todd Rundgren’s liner notes for his 1972 album Something/Anything, specifically the opening track” I Saw the Light”:” If there’s a single on this album, this is it, so I put it first like at Motown”. Tracks like” Apple” and” Around” bring more of a psychedelic edge to the table, particularly the spacey experimental folk of the latter, as” a robot’s spoken word duets with a choir of humans”, according to the press notes. Acoustic guitar and vocals seamlessly blend with effects and blips, much like an updated version of” Space Oddity.”

Mendelsohn shifts effortlessly from ponderous ballads to power-pop rave-ups, like on the crunchy, hyperactive” Sertraline”, which culminates in a glorious coda:” A pig in a cage on klonopin / Baby are you listening / I do n’t have that peace of mind anymore/ Obviously I’m tougher than even just a year ago / Dicing up your ego / What a bore”. If you can imagine Radiohead binging Pet Sounds, you’re in the neighborhood of this wild, strange universe. But slower, more reflective songs are abundant, such as” Water Spilling Test”, a strangely tender, fractured tune described by Mendelsohn as” a breakup song, zoomed way in”. One can imagine Mendelsohn singing tenderly in space as the traditional instrumentation is once more combined with alien sonics and subtle, disembodied rumblings. It packs a beautiful sonic wallop.

Elsewhere, drum machines and a lilting beat give” Bigger Problem” a lo-fi take on yacht rock, while the earnest tone of” On the Bar” evokes a more psychedelic version of Elliott Smith. ” Rachel Getting Married” is a beautifully constructed mid-tempo stomper, one of the album’s finest, interrupted by an out-of-nowhere, overmodulated synth solo that drastically changes the tone of the song in a jarring yet refreshing manner.

You can point at plenty of influences while picking apart (and immensely enjoying) this unusual, infectious record. Still, taken as a whole, Also I Asked You a Problem is the product of Nate Mendelsohn’s singular artistic vision that can’t be easily compared to anyone else.