Public Eye Music for Leisure LP
PUBLIC EYE’s Music for Leisure, a follow-up to 2017’s Relaxing Favorites, is perhaps not as laid-back as the title suggests, and is ultimately a solid outing. The Portland quartet keeps things mid-tempo, and instrumentally it’s as if mid-career IGGY POP took a Valium. The snappy, dry guitars are tone city and the riffage is more than capable and likely to get stuck in your head. The steady but low-key vocals hang back in a way that at times is similar to BEEF JERK, and in their more animated moments, bring PARQUET COURTS to mind. Only in “The Duet” do they break format and strip things down to bass and drums before breaking out into a caterwauling free jazz-style sax solo. Otherwise it’s stripped-down, it makes no mistakes, but doesn’t take any exceptional risks either. Pretty decent all around.