Review: Lee Wanner – Every Man Is An Island

[Stream the album here]

LeeWanner-EveryManIsanIslandLee Wanner is a particular fellow, music-wise. His now defunct (from what I understood) band, Rejectionary Art, released one album of pure heavy grooviness, and one other of varied musical genres applied to djent, the latter in a rather small dose. All the while, his solo albums ranged from purely jazz awesomeness to weird and creepy classical music with foley, and a funky 80s-style album, among other ones. Now, with Every Man Is An Island, Lee seems to have gathered all these varied experience to make something truly, strangely, weird and good!

Instead of drawing on multiple genres and sounds on different songs, it’s a much more cohesive work than on, for example, Rejectionary Art’s Exocoetidae, and he really does seem to have found his own, signature sound. Which I would describe as some sort of weird experimental progressive pop-rock(?). Despite my obvious lack of categorization skills, it is a really interesting sound that Lee has found. It’s quite upbeat even though it’s not always happy sounding, and it kinda sounds… futuristic maybe… With the strange vocal melodies, reminiscent to some degree of what Ben Norton signs in Peculate; it sounds almost robotic and devoid of emotions. Even though at times it is filled with feelings.

As always, the musicianship is really high there, composition and execution are perfect, along with all the production and post-production that comes with them. I have to say I really dig those drums! They are intricate and there is a lot of effects and panning on them, which I find pretty cool. So, nothing else to say on that, it’s pretty much perfect!

In the end, the long-awaited and thoroughly-teased Every Man Is An Island lives up to its promises. Go and buy it right now!