Pompeii

As her work has grown, Welsh auteur Cate Le Bon's abstract inclinations have crept more and more into the forefront. Experimental moves that once only surfaced in her Drinks side project or in production for other artists crested in the insular, prismatic songwriting of her excellent 2019 solo effort Reward, and sixth album Pompeii applies that same risk-taking mind set to songs that are more colorful and more bizarre. There's a murkier quality to Pompeii than Le Bon's work usually takes, with layers of '80s synth tones, saxophone, occasional bursts of prickly guitar, and slippery basslines mixed into dense blocks of sound. The foggy production is a huge shift from the comparatively stark and direct sounds on earlier albums and gives the woozy funk-pop of standout tracks "French Boys" and "Running Away" a plastic sheen similar to Station to Station-era Bowie and hints of City pop mellowness. Bass takes on new prominence here, with Le Bon writing a good portion of the album on bass guit