Appearing as the first musical guest on Saturday Night Live after Donald Trump’s reelection seems like a bum deal.
Even so, Michael Todd Gordon, who makes music under the moniker Mk.gee, was an esoteric choice: a decidedly lo-fi, low-profile, multi-instrumentalist artist and producer who sings like a Gen Z Sting.
But he was the perfect choice: a voice backed by a plaintive guitar squall, spitting emotion. It resonated profoundly.
Mk.gee’s debut album, Two Star & The Dream Police, has a vital thrum. Singles “Are You Looking Up” and “Alesis” sound experimental, but you can tell they started from a place of soft R&B accessibility.
Their mangled melodies recall the scrappy ingenuity of early doo-wop producers.
But Dream Police pushes those distortions to breaking point – a vast suffusion of American musical history getting compressed through a crunchy filter.
In a lane all his own, the surreal and the sincere meet.
Mk.gee’s all that.