I dare say there are many artists who claim disinterest in the mechanics of the music business, but few walk it like they talk it as much as Kelley Stoltz. The irony, of course, is that his refusal to play the game only makes him more compelling. If the pun‑heavy album title did not tip you off, the lead track and first single, ‘Competitive Bastard,’ certainly does; this is a groovy shrug from a musician who has long since stopped chasing exposure and instead makes records for his own delight and fulfilment. Walking this line feels like child’s play these days and he carries himself like a man who knows it, producing work with the maverick flare and caustic wit of a true individualist outsider, albeit one that would surely occupy a mainstream habitat were all fair and just in the checks and balances of the music world. ‘Turn The Earth’ is another one that carves a space between pop exuberance (it has a crazy descending ping-pong-ping-pong hook that could be straight out of children’s TV) and something far heavier. So much so that when you hear lines like “should we live in terror? Should we live in peace? Should we live for something that we can’t even see?” it all feels a little like gallows humour.

Kelley Stoltz has spent nearly three decades carving out one of the most idiosyncratic paths in American underground pop. Born in New York in 1971 and raised in Michigan, he emerged in late‑’90s San Francisco with a home‑recorded blend of psych shimmer, garage‑rock grit, and melodic classicism that instantly marked him as a true DIY outlier. Across a deep run of releases for Sub Pop, Third Man, and Castle Face, he has become known for playing almost everything himself, folding the tuneful precision of ’60s pop architects into the off‑kilter charm of cult ’80s power‑pop and new wave. After his eighteenth album, 2024’s ‘La Fleur,’ Stoltz returns with this nineteenth LP that extends a long‑running fascination with hooks, texture, and late‑night introspection. Guests include Brigid Dawson, Karina Denike, Pete Straus, Allyson Baker and others add vocal colour, but the vision remains singular. A favourite of Brooklyn Vegan and John Dwyer, Stoltz has also logged time as Echo & the Bunnymen’s rhythm guitarist (a connection that can be heard clearly on the pounding ‘Not Gone’), serves as Robyn Hitchcock’s West Coast drummer, and currently hosts KEXP’s Bay Area spotlight show ‘Vinelands.’

This is definitely a record that leans heavily into Kelley’s wry humour and vulnerable undercurrent while reaffirming his reputation as a pop chameleon, forever reshuffling his influences into something unmistakably his own. That is especially apparent on ‘Watts Moon Starr’ which manages to fuse college rock, early indie, electro pop vocal mechanics and retain its rustic garage rock edge all rolled up into a mass that is unmistakeably Stoltz like. Chart hits of the eighties do actually bleed into Stoltz’ sound increasingly these days (maybe there is enough time between the pop world of his teenage years that it no longer is something to react against?) which can be heard in the Numanoid tension of both ‘Seventeen Lines’ and ‘Look Again.’ The latter of these two is one of the standout pop moments on the whole album. ‘Daughter Of The Golden West’ has Britpop energy and a rather Jarvis Cocker-like lilt in Kelley’s voice appears, a similarity that once you spot it seems to crop up repeatedly, which is no bad thing, Kelley having a similarly engaging delivery that leaves room for extravagant flourishes. There is no let-up in pace or drop in sonic thrills as we progress, ‘Radio Station’ is wispy like the airwaves it sings of while ‘Queen Of Diamonds’ brilliantly fuses a glam-rock stomp to vintage sixties psych vibes. Closing on ‘The Aches & Pains Of Middle Age’ Kelley sounds acerbic with lines like “I played on a famous stage to nobody,” but it all merely reinforces how much brilliance gets overlooked; but for those tuned in, this smaller corner of the musical world feels like the richer one anyway.

Danny Neill

You can get yourself a physical copy or download of the new Kelley Stoltz album here and it will not be available to stream until September, so don’t wait that long, let’s give the artist and label the taste of the action they deserve and purchase it this way: https://dandyboyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/if-you-dont-know-me-buy-now