WILLIS EARL BEAL
Sometimes stepping away from it all brings immense clarity. Chicago-born musician Willis Earl Beal has led quite the tumultuous life so far in his brief professional career. He joined the army years ago and was discharged for medical reasons, left the Windy City for New Mexico, was temporarily homeless, in and out of one job after another, and started composing music around that time. He auditioned for the first season of the US version of X Factor, was ultimately taken under the wing of Hot Charity, a subsidiary of XL Recordings and recently left the label after two of his albums were released. Some artists would kill to have the opportunities he has enjoyed, but as with many things in life, success comes with a price. There are hordes of talented musicians clamoring to be heard, yet few are chosen to be represented by either a major or an indie label. The reality is that sometimes it's not the best fit or solution, and often the artistic vision of the musician is compromised for the almighty dollar and the manipulative designs of record executives.

Beal's career now resides within his own two hands. He took the lead in a film called Memphis, toured with a full live band under the title of The Church of Nobody, made the move from NYC to Washington state and now has delivered the independently released new record Experiments In Time. With its bare bones production, inspired by the likes of Nat King Cole and Tom Waits, Beal's third album is simply superb. The glossy bombast of 2013's Nobody Knows. is gone. There are no duets with Cat Power or overly-produced tracks to be found here. The lo-fi, bluesy folk he presented before his major label releases, has returned in spades, although for a point of reference, this is cut from a similar bare bones cloth as Acousmatic Sorcery, sans any of that album's instrumental quirkiness.

Beal served as singer-songwriter, producer, and engineer on the album, and has described his latest release as "a collection of electronic minimalist lullabies that sound crossed between Soul and Gregorian chant". Besides the fuzzed out, gritty album closer "Now Is Gone", the trance-like groove of "Slow Bus" or the percussive patter of "Waste It Away", the album revels in a quiet, blue-hued mood, with dreamy, languorous tempos and Beal's gorgeous voice delivering his warmly sung lines with a hushed intensity. If he was hoping to banish the memory of his last album, he succeeded most triumphantly. This sounds like a completely different artist altogether, and the production is as quietly intimate as if one had come across Benedictine monks singing their evening vespers. It all seems like a late night, intimate conversation with close friend or relative.

His effortless falsetto appears throughout the lovely spiritual hymn "Traveling Eyes", but it's in the meditative track "At the Airport" with it's grandfather clock-esque synths that Beal truly stuns. Comparisons have been drawn before, but the timbre of Beal's voice often recalls that of Marvin Gaye or Terry Callier. If anyone was curious what Gaye might have sounded like without the broad-stroked production values and sweeping strings of many of his recordings, Experiments In Time might offer a glimpse into that alternative reality. Beautifully composed, produced and performed, Willis Earl Beal has now released an album that seems truer to his vision. It's a stunning statement of artistic freedom.