Harlan: Night Loop – Album Review

LSU MFA graduate and Baton Rouge Gallery artist member John Norris meticulously pieced together his electro-Americana debut, 2007’s The Still Beat, alone, track by track, then embraced a fuller, Roxy Music-infused late-’70s sound with his live band on the 2008 follow-up Spiderette. Now Norris is set to returns this Spring with Night Loop, the bold third full-length offering from his pop mélange Harlan.

Collaborating again with drummer Scott Campbell, Norris edited electronic jams into sections to compose melodies and lyrics around before sending Night Loop’s song files back to Campbell for further electronic embellishment and programmed beats. The result is a surprisingly perfect synthesis of Norris’ classic rock and art school aesthetics with his wont to shove and stretch these tender tunes and kaleidoscope lyrics into places a little less assured, a little darker.

“Daffodil” kicks off the album with a nasty, guttural lick and groove, while “Death in the Living Room” finds Norris lighting an acid-tongued cannon shot to the cosmos, both playfully pop and existential. “God?” Norris asks as keyboard dabs intersect and flutter like Morse code. “Are you a rocker or a mod?”

This record embraces a casual, open-ended quality and humor—a shout-out to Home Alone mom Catherine O’Hara closes the proceedings—where Norris’ past work more often reached for closure and grandeur. Even so, some of Night Loop’s best moments are its bigger statements, like the John Hughes-ready rhythmic rattle of “You’re a Teenager” and the minimalist ballad-turned-veering highway drive “I Aim to Be Your Modern Man.”

Embracing a focused, angular and caustically cool sound, Night Loop is Harlan’s most visionary and au courant slate to date. thestillbeat.com