BRUCE HORNSBY
‘FLICTED
ZAPPO PRODUCTIONS
★★★★
For an indication of his latest album’s cerebral nature, check out Tag, where Bruce Hornsby announces “a humble brag is never that”, then crowbars in the word “eschatological”, all while slowly developing the song’s rhythmically nagging piano melody into something jazzier and offering hints of Peter Gabriel in his vocal lines. And yet, while ’Flicted isn’t always easy listening, it’s not exclusionary. Maybe Now’s frantic, low piano trills and nervous rimshots are way more thrilling than one might expect of a song about being digitally cut off during a storm – and his Prince-like falsetto’s revelationary – while The Hound’s full of jagged piano motifs and random snare drums, Hornsby pointing to “the guy who... had the wet spot at the cotillion dance” while investigating social media pile-ons.