James Friley, pka Idiot Glee, has always stood apart from his indie brethren. Armed with just his voice and a keyboard, Idiot Glee is the dream-pop manifestation of Friley’s incredible voice and classically-trained abilities. This became apparent to many outside of his Lexington, Kentucky home when he covered Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine”, which would soon become a request when playing to hipster-filled clubs around the country.
It’s been over five years since that introduction, and Friley has continued to hone his talent for blending soulful harmonies and bedroom-pop sensibilities with an appreciation for the thematic heartbreak that stands at the heart of all great art. Which is why the announcement of a new album produced by Hedwig & The Angry Inch composer Stephen Trask makes so much sense.
Slated to be released on January 29 on Hop Hop Records, Idiot Glee’s latest output is a self-titled affair. The first single , “Evergreen Psycho”, is a crash-course in love songs 101. In both the literal and enigmatic sense. Friley explained the song to The Line Of Best Fit.
The song is a story about two ‘people’ falling in love,” Friley explains, “although deceptively, one of them simply wants something from the other one…but it’s portrayed literally as a Cactus and an Evergreen tree falling in love, the Evergreen secretly just wanting to drink the water within the cactus…and murders it to do so.
