The captivating new release from Chris Portka, The Album Everyone Wants blends acoustic folk, shimmering rock, and subtle psychedelia across eleven tracks, seamlessly weaving originals with inventive reinterpretations of classic songs. Recorded between New York and Oakland, the album finds Portka joined by longtime friends and talented musicians, co-produced with indie mainstay Jasper Leach (Burner Herzog, Brasil, The Symbolick Jews) and featuring contributions from members of the Al Harper Band alongside other guests. The result is a set that balances intimacy with collaboration, sounding both deeply personal and expansively communal.
“She Looks So Good Tonight” opens the album with heartfelt immersion, ascending from subdued acoustics into burgeoning electric elements, as the vocals remark a title-touting sense of being smitten. The repeated line “oh, she looks so good tonight” captures both the awe of memory and the ache of knowing that love can fade, leaving only fragments: “Now faded memoir of a distant shore / she wanted more, more, more.” Portka’s engaging original songwriting continues with “Fun in the Summer,” melding Lou Reed-esque vocal suaveness within blaring guitars and whistling alike; it’s a stirring success, resembling a California road-trip fantasia where pleasure and self-destruction both sit in back seat.
The album’s first cover arises with a take on Syd Barrett’s “It Is Obvious,” released in 1970. Maintaining the steady acoustic-set backing and introspective, dazed vocal drive of the original, Portka’s sound envelops with its swelling distortion in the second half, traversing into a rock-ready realm of vigor with thoroughly successful results. We stay in the year of 1970 with an ensuing cover of Mayo Thompson’s “Dear Betty Betty.” Dreamy vocals, thumping rhythms, and blaring organs build with artful intrigue, with that palpable momentum culminating in sporadic doses of twinkling guitars; it makes for another riveting take on a memorable classic.
Portka enthralls on a variety of other covers throughout — from the hazy Americana allure of Fred Eaglesmith’s “Trucker Speed” to the no-frills folk beauty and dual-vocal layering within Skip Spence’s “Broken Heart.” A twangy rock drive also enamors on “Tennessee Whiskey,” infusing the Dean Dillon/Linda Hargrove standout with pedal steel and Kraut-rock influence. They all consume in retaining the heart and spirit of their initial versions, while strutting Portka’s own signature stylishness as well.
Following an assortment of excellent covers, Portka’s original songwriting again shines with “The Observer.” Acoustic shimmering, warming organs, and lush piano complement an introspective lyrical heart, capturing a sense of watching life more than experiencing it. The refrain “I’m just an observer” captures that distance. Conjuring a sound fondly reminiscent of David Berman, it’s another piece of fantastic songwriting on an album that consistently delights in such. Impressing thoroughly, The Album Everyone Wants stands as an excellent output, showcasing Chris Portka’s original songwriting and inventive covers alike with warmth and ingenuity.
Purchase the album in vinyl form here.
