3 out of 5

Label: Kill Rock Stars

Produced by: Mark Nevers

What’s up, Folk Implosion guy Imaad?  How’s that solo career?  Regarding his debut, on KRS, it’s maybe sorta Iron & Wine-ish, but with a dash more complexity and a dash less minimalism and a much less generic Sam Bean voice.  …Though this still results in something of an undefined sound, there are absolutely enough moments of worth to make it err toward enjoyable.

The self-titled disc is mostly acoustic, with occasional accents that do much to enrich any given song – brief distortion, some backup vocals, drums – as they’re sparingly applied, and producer Nevers captures it all with a very live, rich sound, the tracks that take advantage of these arrangement additions are among the disc’s best.  Elsewhere, Wasif has an active playing style, plucking at his chords as opposed to strumming, so we’re never really dropping into slowcore or silence (though that style and element can obviously have their place), though he rarely varies from the same pace or range, which allows the material to blend together.  His vocals appreciably steer clear of sounding too distinct – which, for solo acoustic things can inadvertently come across as indulgent, even though you can’t help how ya’ sound – but he’s not afraid to put oomph into it all the same.  I think what I dug is that the album is wholly sung, and not just sorta’ talk sung.  These pleasant aspects help to balance out its weakness, which comes with the lyrics: the subject matter sticks to cool things like sadness and loving chicks who don’t love you, but when he’s not being somewhat vague, Wasif comes dangerously close to high school poetry, just sort of tossing out generic weepy terms and phrases.  This is the exception, thankfully, but it’s cheesy enough to knock the listen a bit off-kilter.

And it’s short.  I think, had Wasif allowed the tracks where he builds to a powerful moment ride it out to “full” 3 or 4 minute length, the album may have had more definition.  Of course, at the same time, it might’ve just made it seem padded around lesser tracks.  As is, Imaad’s self-titled solo debut is accomplished and confident, and an easy leave-it-on-repeat disc, with its good sense of forward momentum and occasional bursts of extra energy, but it lacks a definitive “sound” or songs that end up truly standing out.