Reviewed by Kit Burns
Chris Littler/There’s Still Room to Walk
Chris Littler is a folk soul with a punk heart. With his soft, breathy voice, Littler could’ve been making music closer to the spirit of John Mayer. Thankfully, he isn’t. Instead of a chick-charming record smooth enough to win the hearts of sorority girls nationwide, Littler pushes the envelope, seemingly inspired by both the piano-based barbed-wire pop of Ben Folds and the unplugged thrashing of the Violent Femmes.
“Vanilla Blues” is all tangled up in spiky acoustics; the piano is its only melodic element, and the contrast of the two gives it a mesmerizing edge. “Foolproof” is what happens when the grunge formula of stop/start is adopted into the folk format with Littler’s distorted vocals producing even more irreverence. On “Just Ask,” Littler really lets it rip with an electric alternative-rock riff and pounding drums. But it’s on “Candidate” that Littler’s experimental side takes over, reeling us in with a crisp bass line and techno backbeat before launching into a world of backwards loops and psychedelic sounds.
