Jeffrey Novak

Surfacing with little early warning, the new album from Jeffrey Novak heralds a return to the solo psych boogie that broke him out of Cheap Time’s punk sweat n’ swagger. The last few years have seen Novak splitting his time between the glam crunch of Savoy Motel and the funk formations of his new band, Cookie Jar. It’s been more than a decade since he was solo above the marquee, but Blood Celebration feels like a natural next step. The album was born out of a break from Cookie Jar’s electric itch, with Novak looking to bring to life an acoustic-based boogie with an ear towards Hot Tuna. The resulting album grabs hold of the stitching that holds together his various personas and passions — a soul-soaked strummer that’s built to get yer blood pumping but that doesn’t forgo any of the pop trimmings either.

The acoustic guitar remains the focal point here, but if you think this is Novak gone folk, get the notion far from your mind. Rolling its instincts through the Bolan-boogie and burnt end blues that fueled prime period Ty Segall and running wild through the American canon, the record picks at Petty and Spence and dips into the stewed songwriting that turned Nashville into a nexus of country, soul, R&B and rock. A few times a specter of spaced Brit-pop pops into the mix as well, with opener “Lucyville” and “Jaybird” nipping at territory traced by The Charlatans and The Telescopes. While the last few years have found Novak branch out, it’s nice to get a record from him that feels loose, a no-expectations kinda release that far surpasses the notion of a one-off or whim. This one might be swerving under the sonar these days, but don’t miss out.

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