New Albums
MICHAEL LEAGUE
Snarky Puppy founder’s first solo outing
So Many Me GROUNDUP
7/10
In a 15-year career making mostly instrumental albums, League’s only previous lead vocal was an eight-second snatch on a David Crosby record. Here he finds his voice on 11 self-penned and highly personal songs about insecurity (“Me Like You”), double lives (“I Wonder Who You Know”) and the need for physical contact (“Touch Me”). The latter is particularly pertinent, for the album was recorded in the isolation of lockdown with a laptop and keyboard. The layered synths owe something to Malcolm Cecil and Bob Margoulef’s work on Stevie Wonder’s ’70s albums, while his languid, dreamy, multi-tracked vocals variously evoke Animal Collective, Sade and 10cc.