Album Review: Kyle Craft - Full Circle Nightmare

This is Kyle Craft's second album; his first set a high bar with its songs of underground heroes and misfits and now he's taken that momentum and set one dizzying and rambunctious musical snowball in motion.

Craft is still mining the same stories he relishes and excels at, singing of junkies and angels, late night bars, existential crises, and the overwhelming worlds of love and lust. He packs a plethora of words into his songs like a pop-up jack-in-the-box, rhyming couplets and lyrics tumbling out with unabashed emotion and enthusiasm as he swings from sweet crooning to bluesy howls. His voice serves as the perfect delivery method for his voluminous tales. There's more than a touch of Dylan-esque fantastical imagery, stream of consciousness and kaleidoscopic word association that allows his rock'n'roll songs to embrace psych-pop and country soul - like Syd Barrett dancing with The Band.

Heartbreak Junky finds the best balance between frantic musical rush and measured poeticism while Belmont (One Trick Pony) comes off as a cross between Jack White and Jet. "Stranded down on Silver Street, just throwing bottles at the Delta Queen" is one of many fine lines on Slick & Delta Queen as Craft paints his compelling vignettes. It sums up the wild streak of creativity that Craft is riding for all its worth on Full Circle Nightmare.