In another life, Joakim Bjornberg wrote J-Pop. Now he's put together his own music under the name lodet. It's, um, not very J-Pop.

lodet Many Days EP (Allen Road Music)

Rather, it has the sunny, hazy shimmer of Beatles-inflected 70s pop-rock. Stranger than Wings, straighter than George Harrison and much tighter than John Lennon. And yet, it's not hard to hear pieces of those artists here. And some Stevie Wonder. And some Fleetwood Mac. And then some.

The five songs here share a vibe, but they move in strikingly different ways. Bjornberg isn't afraid to switch up his palette to suit a particular song. The finishing touches on these songs are really impressive.

Now, I need to hear a lot more to get really excited, but these five songs are wonderful. I hear exceptional depth in the music and lyrics, and I'd like to think Bjornberg has plenty left in reserve. After all, he's been writing processed pop for ages. Now that he's free to do his own thing, the creativity has to be overflowing. Let's hope so.

Jon Worley