Regular

Album Review

It's hard to know what to make of Regular's self-titled debut album, even if it seems that might have been the intention of singer/songwriter John F. Kieltyka, who wrote and sang everything here, even if he didn't bill the final result to himself. Musically, Regular has fairly accessible, if somewhat quirky and twisting, alternative indie rock melodies and arrangements, backing Kieltyka's slightly strained but reasonably accomplished and expressive vocals. Lyrically, however, it's hardly any more straightforward than a Jandek record, with frequent strings of unrelated non-sequiturs (though they're sung as if they actually make a good deal of sense). What to make of lines like "who knew the general in his prime was walking with a clubbed foot?" or "Wally is out of touch, keeps seeing himself in autographed pictures of Abraham Lincoln in women's lingerie"? Neither of which, mind you, is especially related to the other words in the songs in which they appear. What does seep through, if only in the manner of a hallway light penetrating cracks of a closed door, is a sense of dislocated unhappiness, loneliness, and social marginalization, though the music isn't anywhere as downbeat as that might suggest. In fact, there are a fair amount of wistful melodies and unexpected tempo changes and decorative instrumental touches, albeit in a somewhat generic indie rock fashion. More coherence in these kind of endeavors isn't always necessarily a bad thing, though.