LITTLE WINGS “SOFT POW’R” RAD

Returning from the fringes after the one-toke-over-the-line Grow, Kyle Field (a.k.a. Little Wings) delivers the sober and brilliant Soft Pow’r, featuring seven songs propelled by just a breath or a breeze. But with repeated listens, Soft’s fog dissipates: the ballads are the stand-outs, like “Gone Again,” a sick and lonely song that recalls vast sands and endless night. (Perhaps from Field’s fabled time living in a driftwood fort on a Malibu beach?) The stark “Saturday” offers a weekend spent waiting for a friend or a lover to come around, on “nothin’ but a Saturday/nothin’ but a Saturday.” “Free Bird” (probably a popularly requested song live) is a lilting ride in a major key with harmonies and a classic-sounding chorus. Field’s voice sounds as true and (mostly) un-ironic as it did on Light Green Leaves, here like both Sade and Marc Bolan, or Gene Clark if he inhaled helium and sang vibrato. Soft Pow’r moves like a dream—when you wake up, it’s gone, yet somehow still with you.

Tags: k records, kyle field, little wings