Australian artist Tex Crick announces his debut album, Live In… New York City. Out March 26th, it’s the first album released via Mac’s Record Label besides Mac DeMarco’s own work. While Crick is best known as an adaptable collaborator, most notably playing with Iggy Pop, Weyes Blood, Kirin J. Callinan, and Connan Mockasin, Live In… New York City presents his own fleshed-out sound. Taking a leaf from piano-driven pop records of a bygone era, the album is an homage to sentimentality, merging classic songcraft with a naturally delicate approach to instrumentation. This is immediate in the lead single/video, “Sometimes I Forget.”
“Sometimes I Forget” is a soft and mellow ode to romance: “My heart’s skippin’ like a stone // I’m hooked on you through and through // I love everything you do.” Instead of filming several New York-focused videos for the album like Crick had planned, COVID travel restrictions kept him in Japan, where he was visiting his girlfriend pre-pandemic. As a result, the video for “Sometimes I Forget” was filmed by Director Monika Mogi on Muira Beach a couple hours south of Tokyo. It visualizes the track’s sentimentality, showing Tex cheekily skipping stones on the water.
Aside from Live In…New York City not being a live album, Crick has found unique ways to put his sense of humor on display. For the album cover, Crick had an idea to email a private investigator pretending he was a woman with a cheating spouse. “I arranged for him to follow and photograph my cheating husband (which would actually be me),” says Crick. “I had the P.I. follow me around Manhattan all day taking pictures of me. I ended up using one of the private investigator’s pictures as the album cover. I still don’t know who the guy was that took the photo. All I know is that his name is Ed.”
From misty-eyed love ballads to janky-edged rock spectacles. Live In… New York City unfolds a cloyingly sweet collection of softhearted classics.
1. Here We Go
2. Nothing Will Change My Mind
3. Supernatural
4. Sometimes I Forget
5. Peaches & Cream
6. Spinster St. I
7. Spinster St. II
8. Always On My Mind
9. The Way You Are
10. Last Call