For all their mutual hostility, pop music and academics make some wacky fireworks when they crawl under the covers. Since the ’60s, Red Krayola braintrust Mayo Thompson has fused clinical, erudite lyrics with any sort of pop music he pleases, from expansive C&W to unhinged psychedelia and rickety disco-funk. Occasionally, he hits on something singularly haunting. In any case, he’s his own genre.
If The Red Krayola had “hits,” Singles wouldn’t archive them—some of this stuff is seeing its first proper release, and most of it has eluded all but the most impassioned collectors. But as a primer, it’ll serve. It spans from earnest folk to sneering, sideways punk, with detours through Freud and unsolicited collaboration. (The lyrics to “Your Body Is Hot” were, according to the poorly translated liner notes, found in a rental car). The best of it captures the cool detachment and rabid experimentalism that makes Thompson a truly unique case.