Kevin Bronson on February 18th, 2020

0

Singer-songwriter Dustin Lovelis has always found space for blissful textures and lively experimentation in his explorations of ’60s and ’70s psychedelic rock. He’s also found a way to craft songs that are starkly relevant to this era, whether as mere observer of dystopian chaos or as a diarist assigning wider meaning to his personal travails.

About the time Lovelis dispensed with his ambitious R. Stevie Moore covers project two summers ago, he turned his attention to his third solo album. He had written and recorded much of it at his Long Beach home, but, he says, “I felt it needed another element both sonically and creatively,” so he contacted New York musician/producer Sam Cohen (Kevin Morby, Benjamin Booker, Rhett Miller, et al). “Once he was on board, I left Long Beach for New York with a collection of deeply personal home recordings under my arm,” Lovelis says. “Within a week we were able to finish the album while still preserving the raw sincerity of the home recordings.”

The result is “In Your Chamber,” out Friday via Park the Van Records and available on vinyl via Porch Party Records. It’s the third solo album from Lovelis, once a principal in the Fling, following 2015’s “Dimensions” and 2017’s “Been Hit Before.”

He refers to “In Your Chamber” as an “unintentional concept album … a personal conversation with my tragedies.

“It’s a love letter to my son who, due to health complications, was never born,” Lovelis explains. “It’s also a commentary on the wild world he would have entered — fears of AI, nuclear war and the political climate in general.” Serious matters all, but far from heavy-handed in their treatment on “In Your Chamber.” There’s a lush intimacy in how Cohen and Lovelis chose to build on the home recordings rather than re-record the songs.

The song “Climate of Fear” is a bite-sized rocker, one of the most direct and immediate moments on the album. “‘Climate of Fear’ was written from a sort of post-apocalyptic perspective,” Lovelis says. “I was thinking of how strange it would be to survive something like that from an underground shelter, only to get out and wander alone hoping I’m not the only person left.”

“Does anybody else / see what’s going on here?” the songwriter asks. Yes, we do. Thanks in part to poignant reminders like this.

||| Stream: “Climate of Fear”

||| Also: Stream “Anecdote” and “Tara the Android”

||| Live: Dustin Lovelis celebrates his album release with a show Friday at the Art Theatre of Long Beach (2025 E. 4th Street), with the Blank Tapes opening. Tickets.

||| Previously: Dustin Lovelis on the R. Stevie Moore tribute album, “Abyss,” “Tompkinsville,” “Idiot,” “Off the Rails”