In the window of London-based Penny Arcade sits Double Exposure, a compelling sophomore album from the solo project of James Hoare (previously also in Veronica Falls, Ultimate Painting, and Proper Ornaments). It comes across as a cracked-open sketchbook, looser and more experimental than 2024’s debut LP Backwater Collage. At the time I didn’t realize how telling that title was, but this time the patchwork feel is unmissable, matching the cover art. These are ideas caught in motion, often dissolving mid-thought, but that’s the point.
The twelve new songs dial guitars down just enough to let drum machines and woozy organs lead, giving them a hazy, late-night immediacy. There is a bigger role for psychedelics than before, with a hypnotic pulse and uneasy spirals, somewhere between melancholy and motorik daydreams. This record thrives on vibe rather than resolution. Messy, fleeting, but at times brilliant.
Double Exposure—written, performed, and produced by James Hoare—is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Tapete Records.