Together with co-producer Jon Titterington, Troper has marshaled his many muses as seamlessly as ever, and TIPMGAS is both his most varied and most cohesive record to date. Fans of the jangly guitar pop Troper is perhaps best known for will find plenty to chew on in songs like “Best Seat In The House,” “Rotten,” and “In The Band.” Broader palettes will delight in “Let’s Get Back To Music,” which recalls something like yacht rock if the vessel in question was an embittered blues cruise chartered towards Shutter Island. Contemplative closer “Moscow To The Ground” wouldn’t be out of place in the Elliott Smith songbook, the kind of deceptively simple (and deceptively peaceful) coda that belies an interior life that’s anything but.
This is far from some macabre, labyrinthine odyssey through a tortured mind, though. Rubberneckers will find this particular crash site frustratingly put-together. Not to say these are the songs of a man at peace: rather, it’s hard to shake the sense that only someone who’s been on the same mental roller coaster as Troper could render emotional whiplash so compellingly and even charmingly that it makes the sentiment “if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry” feel as obvious as “if you don’t eat, you’ll starve.”
releases July 10th, 2026
The Fat Angel Sings 