On his latest
studio album, Odd, veteran one-man
band Keller Williams sounds perpetually stoned—just the way his fans like him.
Williams receives minimal accompaniment on these dozen tracks, and he keeps the
arrangements sparse enough that he’ll be able to handle them just fine at his
whimsical solo gigs. In fact, “Doobie In My Pocket”—an amusing anxiety attack
based on Williams’ fear of a stray joint being detected by airport security personnel—was
a live sing-along favorite before he ever recorded it.
With lines like “They say the mind is the second thing to go/ I cannot remember the first” (from “Lost”), Odd fuses low-key wit and funk with acoustic guitars and subtle electronic elements while veering toward the jaunty (“Day at the Office”) and the jazzy (“Warning”). The only real problem is that Odd sounds too laid back. Even “Groove of the Storm” doesn’t have much groove.
*/?>
