When your project eschews standard sized pigeon holes and instead garners kitchen-sink comparisons to everyone from Peter Gabriel to Prince, you're gonna have to get creative with your project's roll-out. That's where we find Francis Farewell Starlite and his And The Lights outfit: There was his $100,000 incorporation by Normative, the company founded by Jakob Lodwick as some sort of a private equity/post-Bowie Bonds experiment in artist financing, and then the more organic aesthetic routes: a Kanye cover; writing, collaborating, and touring with Drake; now a debut full-length (after a series of EPs) out now on Cantora. Francis's energetic, quasi-choreographed live show's apparently a must-see, though nothing he's recorded has really grabbed me until passing through this new album, It'll Be Better. Maybe it's because we're on a Peter Gabriel bender around here, but between the keyboard tones, guitar breaks, and Starlite's vocal, "For Days" nails a sweet and soulful spot of '80s synth pop in the vein of the glossy, more radio-ready side PG's So and Us output. The cruise-boat line-dancing hook of "In A Limousine"'s also worth checking -- grab the former, stream the latter below:
Francis And The Lights - "For Days"
The record:
Here's a video for "Darling, It's Alright":
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It'll Be Better is out via Cantora.
