As the de facto leader of the collective Phantom Posse, New York-based multi-instrumentalist Eric Littmann (whose solo project Phantom Power gives the group its name) has overseen several low-key collections of hazy electro-pop. But in the year and change since the group's last set, one of the musicians in the orbit of the amorphous crew has seen his profile raised substantially. On the strength of a Drake remix and a well-received EP of similarly blunted ballads, iLoveMakonnen was one of rap radio's strangest successes in 2014. But while he was working with the likes of Mike WiLL Made It and Sonny Digital, he also found time to lend vocals to four of the tracks on Home, Phantom Posse's latest full-length.
While the Makonnen connection is the most likely entry point to the record, his contributions are only a small part of what's going here. Each contributor brings something uniquely warped to the LP's seasick atmosphere, starting with the first timid vocal on the album, courtesy of Renee Anderson of Melbourne, Australia's Private Life. Amidst swooning keyboard passes and the gleeful dips and dives of a nylon-stringed guitar, Anderson's breathy vocals suggest sighs, winks, and smirks. Throughout the record, there's a sense of humor and playfulness implicit in each syrupy saxophone part (on album opener "Separate Ways") or deadpanned vocalizations (often courtesy Makonnen or Littmann himself).
Ariel Pink has employed the same sort of tongue-in-cheek approach to arrangements, but Littmann and company depart from the legions of Pink acolytes by rejecting post-millennial irony. Instead, Phantom Posse offer sincerity. There are chintzy horn lines, sure, but there's also endearingly bare reflections on dissolving relationships ("She Gets Lonely"), urban disaffection ("Come to Chicago"), and other simple woes. When Makonnen dedicates "I'm Stranded" to his dad, then lazily drawls that he doesn't feel like calling him anyway, it highlights the charming disconnect that lies at the heart of this record. At one moment distant and goofy and the next heartwarmingly bare, Phantom Posse spans the gamut of indie pop songwriting.
The emotional range of Phantom Posse is evident in the solo work of the constituent members (Littmann pens self-serious love songs under the jokey moniker Steve Sobs and Makonnen has been known to pair even his most heartfelt ballads with Andy Milonakis videos), so they have practice balancing these impulses, and Home succeeds in crafting a delightfully dizzying headspace out of that divide. It can be tricky to handle serious subjects with a smile and Littmann's crew keeps getting better. It's only a surreal bonus that an internationally famous rapper had a hand in its construction.
