Just as John P. Strohm releases a record he seems to have grown bored with the style of music on it. As a member of the Blake Babies, Lemonheads, Antenna, Velo-Deluxe and Hello Strangers, he has covered pre-grunge pop, punk-pop, psychedelic-shoegazer pop, and country-pop, but he abandoned each just as quickly as he embraced it.
On his first record since moving to Alabama, the Bloomington, Indiana, native seems to have reconciled his divergent approaches while still giving his individual interests a place at the table. Taking its title from a generic suburb of Birmingham, Vestavia is an honest set of catchy songs set against a backdrop of living in a time when everyone has the same stores in their mall no matter where they live.
Vestavia opens with “Wouldn’t Want to Be Me”, an organ-fueled, midtempo rocker — a sign that Strohm has embraced The Band as part of the middle ground among his influences. Co-producer Ed Ackerson of Polara has brought his penchant for interesting sonic touches that don’t distract from the songs, a compelling complement to Strohm’s restlessness. The bluesy swagger of “Eva Braun” is undercut by a banjo; the distorted, sliding bar chords of “For a While” are twisted by a psychedelic bridge of sitar sounds and guitar loops.
The power ballad “Sylvia’s Gone” seems simple, but its tremolo guitar and martial drums give way to heavy guitars and an earnest, sad-eyed hook. “Drive Thru”, with a laid-back country shuffle beat, keeps the big guitars of the chorus from overwhelming Strohm’s longing for a simpler life, realizing he’s not in love but that he’ll be happy as long as they keep the cable on.