'Flicted is positioned as the closing chapter of a trilogy begun with 2019's
Absolute Zero, the final installment in a series of records where
Bruce Hornsby fully embraced the possibilities by radically expanding some compositions originally written as film cues for a
Spike Lee joint. Where its immediate predecessor,
Non-Secure Connection, lingered and brooded in a way that echoed the work of
Bon Iver, whose figurehead
Justin Vernon is a noted fan of
Hornsby's,
'Flicted is bright and lively in its form and rhythms, its electronic beats and processed voices percolating cheerfully and impishly, his pianos interweaving with spectral voices to create shimmering waves of melody.
Hornsby's mischief extends to the scatological refrain in "The Hound" and a hip-hop-informed revision of
Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business," tracks that would've been jarring on
Non-Secure Connection but point to the weird, off-kilter heart that pulsates through
'Flicted. That sense of adventure is evident even on such relatively straightforward numbers as the lovely ballad "Days Ahead," where
Danielle Haim plays a supporting role, but the record perhaps reaches its apex at its beginning, when
Ezra Koenig and
Blake Mills help elevate the elliptical pop melody of "Sidelines" onto an astral plane. This sense of lightness was missing on the otherwise worthy
Absolute Zero and
Non-Secure Connection, which makes
'Flicted an uplifting and unexpected coda to this restless trilogy. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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