Altogether Stranger

A delight for anyone who considers the Lower East Side of the 60s and 70s a desirable place to spend eternity, Lael Neale’s 2003 album Star Eater’s Delight felt like a lo-fi transmission from some super-cool liminal space — Nico making contact via Alan Vega’s drum machine and a detuned transistor radio.

Newly relocated to LA, Neale’s third album Altogether Stranger presents a richer, more fleshed-out picture without distorting Neale’s bewitching sonic vision.

Whether coming across like Kraftwerk riding a Lynchian lost highway on “Down on the Freeway,” Linda Perhacs leading a séance on the Broadcast-like “Sleep Through the Long Night,” or channelling The Velvets at their most shamanic on the magnificent “New Ages,” the transparent radiations reverberating from Altogether Stranger are utterly captivating, the woozy vintage air hanging over it all inviting you to embrace the fog.