Kevin Bronson on July 23rd, 2020

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Rob Dobson’s solo debut album “New Dystopia” is an album for these times that sounds as if it were made in another time.

The Virginia-bred, L.A.-based singer-songwriter, who before he came to west fronted the band Big Air and since has collaborated with artists such as Ryan Pollie, Borrowed Beams of Light, Avid Dancer and Gabriel Delicious, mixes countryfied indie-rock, noodly ’70s classic rock and sweet/acidic ruminations that make bromides like “It Takes All Kinds” palatable. Dobson edges into the ’80s on songs such as “Temporary,” and into gritty reality on “Science Is Simple,” but generous dashes of lap steel are what gives “New Dystopia” its flavor.

It’s a departure from the big fuzz of Big Air, and sung as if he were the guy at the end of the bar everybody engages in conversation.

The album, released last week, was made at Dobson’s home studio with contributors such as Pollie, Tyler Cash, Louis Chen, Olaf Selland, Kosta Galanopoulos, Riley Geare and Teddy Grossman.

||| Stream: “New Dystopia” and “Temporary”

||| Also: Stream the whole album here