Matt Mays - When the Angels Make Contact

With his band El Torpedo, Mays crafts excellent alt-country-rock songs about lost love and endless highways. On this solo album, the Nova Scotia surfer dude explores similar themes but in a variety of styles. “Beach Party,” with its spacey keyboard dub, sounds like something from The Beta Band, while the title track, featuring a guest vocal from rapper Buck 65, is an urban-flavored delight. And when Mays returns to jangly California sounds on “Morning Sun,” it’s as gorgeous as anything he does with El Torpedo.