Album Review: Winston Surfshirt - Sponge Cake

On the cover of Sponge Cake, sun-bleached images of a dreamy Venetian holiday, a lush green golf course and lounging summer bodies are collaged with faceless heads.

This artwork is fitting for an album that is soaked in sunshine, a weird, off-kilter sensibility and a compelling melange of pop, hip hop and West Coast rap.

On the one hand, there are tracks like Be About You that hark back to retro R&B's unabashed bedroom songs and brass sections, and then there are tracks like FreeForYou that are framed by samples and dreamy, California riffs filled out with hushed, whispered croons and a flow that aims to tribute none other than Kendrick Lamar. Overall, the sound is buttery, cool and moreish, inviting the kind of easy dancing that comes with day drinking.

That Lamar tribute is in sound only, though. Sponge Cake doesn't even try and approach Lamar's lyrical density, urgent politics and psychological pivots, instead characters seem to always be on the crest of love, sitting back and waiting: "Been sinking in you too many times/You won't say any sign... When I was on the back seats sayin'."

This is a summer album through and through, and will be making the rounds on Sunday afternoons at the pub.