ARMS – Patterns

Brooklyn’s Todd Goldstein has long been a hard artist to pin down, definitely indie, but somewhere between catchy and complex. Or both. Or neither. He stays elusively creative as ARMS with Patterns, which has definite moments of brilliance.

Such a moment comes up right at the start with “Laughing Academy”, hooky-yet-intricate, difficult-yet-sunny, and continues with the more sly “Keep It Light”. “All 4s” manages to make bold uplift involved, while “Missing” is ‘just’ really nicely building & moving. Sometimes Goldstein gets perhaps too dense for his own good, like the oddly reduced to banjo picking “Wall of Sound”, or the strange synth effects with closer “Sticks & Stones”, but he’s always trying something.

In another city, ARMS might stand out further, but this is Brooklyn, baby, just where a complex-yet-catchy artist like Todd Goldstein belongs.