Making the Case for Me

Mixing bits of jangle pop and power pop from various decades, Making the Case for Me is an affable, slightly lo-fi indie pop album, though not one that makes a huge impression. Less a band than a one-man-with-friends enterprise based around Jeremy Jensen, the Very Most will vaguely recall numerous pop-rockers here and there without blatantly copping from any of them: Elvis Costello, Marshall Crenshaw, Ray Davies, a less grand Beach Boys, a sunnier Smiths, Merseybeat on the instrumental break of "Smiling Surprise," even Thunderclap Newman for those with deeper-than-average memories and collections. Though usually pivoting around a standard driving guitar engine, care's also taken to vary the diet with various touches of synthesizer, backup female vocals, trumpet, cello, flute, and other instruments. Most of the songs are familiar territory for the genre: winsome, tender, romantic ruminations, suited to Jensen's slightly bemused, quizzical vocals. Once in a while an unusual-for-the-genre lyric pokes out, as in his sweet plea "why don't you call the cops on me?" on "Call the Cops." The pretty flutes and bells on "Multnomah Now" evoke a more flowery sensibility, and the odd, attractive Mellotronish sounds on "Changing Me" a more psych pop one, making it the highlight of a likeable, if routine album.