Record Label: Contraphonic
Genre: Indie Pop
Band Link: link

Side project from Wilco’s keyboardist with members of Iron & Wine and Cat Power.

Sound good?  It isn’t.

The music is overdone and overproduced with a menagerie of horns, organs, and pianos, and is particularly shlocky on the many ballads and slow-tempo songs.  Multi-instrumentalism is nothing new to these bands, but Pronto has an unfortunate Billy Joel/Elton John vibe that is hard to stomach.

Even if you like this music (assuming you’re in a Bar Mitzvah cover band), the vocals will surely be an impediment.  Suffering from “non-vocalist stepping into vocalist in his side band” syndrome, Mikael Jorgensen’s is terribly off-key and strained.  His voice and delivery remind me a bit of Keith Moon, another guy who shouldn’t have strayed from behind his instrument.

This isn’t good at all.

Bottom Line: Pronto is a good name, because that’s how quickly I wanted to shut this off.
Notable Tracks: “Listen Lover” is a jaunty tune that would’ve been good with another vocalist.
Overall Rating: