There’s no shame in being a Fab Four disciple — Electric Light Orchestra, Oasis and Squeeze made careers of it — and Spencer Albee is a 21st century master in the lost art of Beatlesesque hooks. Albee, the king of Portland, Maine’s secretly vibrant music scene (who puts on an annual Beatles tribute show every Thanksgiving), channeled a rough personal period (a breakup, an eviction) into an emotional set of stacked, wall-of-sound harmonies and contagious, confessional hooks. Spencer Albee played all of the instruments himself, constructing keyboard-heavy soundscapes on songs like “One 2 Three” and the bouncy “I Don’t Know,” which sounds like psychedelic doo-wop. He often utilizes chimes and bells for a sound akin to Phil Spector’s sound, but the lyrics — bitter, tortured, accusatory — are anything but joyous.
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The Fat Angel Sings 