Brooklyn dweller Harvey Eyeballs’ new EP, Shadows of His Self, takes singer Fox Schwach’s usually contrasting crooning and puts it back in its place, stuck in the corner with a piano and a room full of decimated drunks.
The lone original on the three-song EP, “Young Jane,” may or may not be a sentimental ode to Daria’s deadpan right-hand, Jane Lane, but either way the lyrics and beautifully played piano are both sweetly dramatic and slightly absurd – mostly in how spot-on Fox Schwach can pull a Sinatra (perhaps with a touch of Tom Waits). Sandwiched in-between two golden oldies, Mercer and Bloom’s standard “Fools Rush In” and Sun Ra’s “Dreams Come True,” “Young Jane” blends like smoke from a single cigarette into the lingering clouds of nightclubs past.
Slow and straightforward, Shadows of His Self is definitely something different from Harvey’s upbeat and unpredictable Vomit Pop. But the drama and touch of the offbeat remain, leaving me with images of Fox singing Julee Cruise-style in some forgotten lounge, waiting for a stranger to stumble in.
