3 out of 5

Produced by: Greg Gordon

Label: Touch and Go

Hereabouts where I lost interest.  On the one hand, Enon, on Hocus Pocus, corrected the issue that stood in High Society’s way: the divide between Toko Yosuda’s-led tracks and John Schmersal’s-led tracks has been quite blurred, making this group sound more like an actual group and the album like an album.  On the other hand, part of this process seemingly shoved most of the Enon weirdness to the background or fringes, resulting in definitely good songs, but not great ones; not ones of special note.  It’s odd, as Schmersal puts his all into some great rock tracks, such as the down and dirty boogie of The Power of Yawning, and with our two vocalists teaming up quite often, Toko’s more bleep-and-bloopy tracks – filtered through producer Greg Gordon’s fuzz – feel more grounded and relatable.  This synthesis also results in some emotive ‘crossover’ tracks, e.g. centerpiece and highlight Candy.  But despite the energy and better consistency, the streamlining sucks out… something.  The wandering riffs and raw sound recall, to an extent, Schmersal’s John Stuart Mill disc, but it’s nowhere near that experimental.  Rather, this is a group of artists who’ve done experimentation and apparently decided to boil quirky down into something precise, kicking it off with convincing oomph, but maybe not so convincing inspiration.  Style over substance?  Perhaps.  The concluding title track hints at the Enon that once was, flourished by a more ‘organic’ sense of weird, and definitely encourages the ears to give the disc another go ’round.  Because the tracks are good, after all, but Believo! is way in the past.