James Husband, better known as Jamey Huggins from Of Montreal (and who’s played with loads of other bands, too), makes his solo debut with A Parallax I. It was recorded in three different studios by three different techniques over five years, and it sounds like it. The cassette-recorded tracks seem appropriately fuzzy and mellow, the all-analogue third of the record sounds as blended and optimistic as it should, and the digitally recorded numbers are as crisp and precise as Huggins’ layered, intricately timed arrangements require.

Though these contrasts reveal themselves readily, what’s more obvious is the album’s considerable common ground. Despite Huggins’ lyrics veering off toward preciousness occasionally, he explores real topics like grief (“A Grave in the Gravel”), depression (“Greyscale”) and disorientation (“Driving Around”) with very human emotion. Imaginative keys pepper all the songs, often warbling like human vibrato (“Little Thrills”) or wrapping rapidly around melody and countermelody (“No No Baby”). They augment the satisfying suspensions in “Greyscale” (which adorably borrows a verse from The Sound of Music’s “Something Good”) and ride below the banjo and stacked chorus vocals in “Take the Train.” But it’s the rock and roll basics that Huggins does really well; the ‘60s guitar in “Window” interplays perfectly with his Elliott Smith-y vocal delivery and backing horns, and the saloon piano meshes harmoniously with pretty, warped psychedelia in “The Darkestness.” A Parallax I is a patchwork quilt of one musician’s hoarded talent, and it was worth the wait.

Julia Reidy