HANK PLAY THE TRANZAC CLUB (292 BRUNSWICK AVE) DEC 6.
Just as quickly as he graced the Torontopian faithful with two lovably lo-fi efforts (2003’s Ackrill/Venning ’91 and 2004’s How to Prosper in the Coming Bad Years), enigmatic UK expat Jeremy Singer a.k.a. Cab Williamson a.k.a. Hank and his trusty troupe of female backup singers seemingly disappeared, like some travelling side show. They reemerge now some four years later with a new digital/vinyl-only release that boasts cleaner production values and a higher average song length, but rather than refine Hank’s approach, these devices only serve to further illuminate the idiosyncrasies of his loopy love songs: the opening “The Sun Shines at Your Door” sounds like Neil Young trying to write “A Man Needs a Maid” while an episode of Solid Gold is being taped next door; “I Let Her Join My Secret Society” pits Mudhoneyed garage-rock grunts against electro-house breaks. The Luck of the Singers’ fractured structure and stop/start fits prevent it from building on the momentum of previous dance-tastic delights like “Heswall Diesel” and “Defreeze & Top Girl,” but the album’s ace closing pair — the Go-Betweens-worthy “My Black Year (My Black Bottle of Beer)” and the punny, Eno-esque sci-fi ballad “Threw Me” — provide an obstructed view of the savvy songwriter often hiding behind the skronk.