Bart Davenport

Long gone are the days when musicians with wide-ranging tastes felt the need to stick to one style of music in order to find an audience. No longer a sin, eclecticism is now simply a challenge, one that some folks rise to and others just wish they could. Local rocker Bart Davenport is one of the blessed few who excels at variety -- so much so that it makes you wonder what the hell the rest of the music industry was thinking all those years.

Following stints fronting mod-inspired faves the Loved Ones and the aggressively perky Kinetics, Davenport has embraced his sweet-toothed multigenre muse, releasing an eponymous solo album full of marvelous pop tunes. Davenport's musical inclinations are as numerous as they are delightful -- from folkish country-rock à la Neil Young and Michael Nesmith to the gooey, domesticated psychedelia of '60s-era West Coast pop. He casually quotes snazzy Small Faces blues riffs alongside the spacey electro-languor of Saint Etienne, swiping from the square-ish pop of Petula Clark and the western swing of Bob Wills.

Davenport's lyrics are hip yet playful, bypassing the cynicism and loftiness to which so many indie bands cling, while also reflecting the same historical knowledge as his arrangements. On "Sugar Pie 1 & 2," Davenport tips his hat to his fellow record collectors, cobbling together old song-lyric double entendres into a new pop confection: "I've got a red carnation/ I like two lips in the rain/ You're no yellow rose/ Sugar Pie." As the chorus rolls around, Davenport sings, "I don't care if you follow me or not," making it plain that this is an inside joke he hopes everyone can enjoy.

Bart Davenport's dreamy backup comes courtesy of a host of Bay Area indie luminaries, notably sound engineer Yuji Oniki, keyboardist Dax Pierson, and members of like-minded ensemble Call and Response. Davenport's sprawling entourage and expansive horizons may invite comparison to Scotland's beloved Belle & Sebastian, but, unlike B&S frontman Stuart Murdoch, Davenport has an unpretentious simplicity that makes his work all the more lulling and delicious.