A little south of the South, Florida harbors an estuary of culture that lends itself to a bizarre melange of musical styles: Tropicalia rubs up against hick rock while gritty punk chats up booty-pop as cubanismo hip-hop looks on. Gainesville is Florida’s answer to Athens, a college town in the middle of nowhere and a haven for art starved, small town refugees. Morningbell plausibly claims king for a day to both Gainesville and the diverse Florida musical landscape with Sincerely, Severely, a sprawling psych-pop wall map. With so much going on that initially it felt like being thrown down a well, stepping back and listening to the tracks out of order helped me make sense of how much detail brothers Eric and Travis Atria put into the crafting of each song, and subsequently the entire album. It could be argued that a small dose of schizophrenia was involved, as while the entire record oozes innate sexuality, it slaloms a course that runs both jerky, impulsive and ready steady, make-love smooth. Swelling, Weezer-like choruses answer to Shins-y verses, literally and rhythmically curt. Bouncy, angular African guitar licks decay into beautifully soft, fingerpicked acoustics that lap the shores of Goldfrapp in a sun-drenched field of dandelions. Title track “Sincerely, Severely” gives Al Green a deadly run while Bowie at his most conceptual is faithfully and creatively conjured. My first thought was that this was two albums of material that could be released separately, but letting it sink in with all its dreamy bigness was worth the faith.

— Coy King

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