John Maus ‎/ LOVE IS REAL

‘Love Is Real’ is stuffed with signature, floating melodies, rounded harmonies and of course laced with Maus’ singular baritone, which works right on the cusp of knowing pastiche and timeless pop proper in a style that has become his trademark. References can simply be stated as “the ‘80s”, as Maus pays canniest tribute to a wealth of music that everyone knows and feels, but with a dreamy spin that somehow brings out the oddness and melancholy of nostalgia in a way that’s maybe comparable with Burial’s hauntological approach to the not-so-distant as much as the hook-riddled craft of his spirit-brother Ariel Pink.