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Los Angeles native is part of the continuously evolving Lo-Fi, straight to tape recording scene and is set to release his debut LP, Wonder Wheel I, on July 27th. His first single, ‘Crimes’, which you can get right now on 7″ via was the weird-o song that popped my Paul Rosales cherry. ‘Crimes’ also happens to be the first cut on Wonder Wheel I and the music itself is alright. It’s catchy enough what with a steady bass line, muffled drum beat and a spacey guitar riff throughout which keeps the song moving but it’s the vocals that don’t quite sit right with me. Do you remember being 12, maybe 13 years old and playing around with a home recorder and messing with the reverb and echo functions until your voice was pretty much incomprehensible? Well, that’s Paul Rosales on this track and just about every song on the record. I’m pretty sure he can’t sing to save his life and he masks that fact with obnoxiously heavy reverb.

‘Crimes’

The next song on the record, ‘Bastard of a Man’, sets into stone that oh so familiar sound of someone singing bad karaoke. Just listen to the chorus when Rosales sings(?), ‘Don’t worry baby, don’t worry baby come in…’ and tell me you don’t agree. Ok. You’re right. The entire song sounds like bad karaoke.

‘Bastard of a Man’

Next, we slide into a song called ‘Swingset II’ feat Ines Navarro. It’s short, simple, soft on the ears and it makes you forget about the mind numbing reverb of the first two songs. ‘Swingset II’ is a melancholic love song between Rosales and Navarro and this time, however, Rosales chooses to attach a minimal echo effect to their voices making it easier to decipher their words which float over an almost tribal sounding bass line and a steady driving organ. When the song ends it feels like Rosales may have something different up his sleeve regarding his song structure. Nope. He brings us right back to his somewhat interesting music attached to his over the top reverb with the songs ‘She Tells Me’ and ‘Never in Love’.

‘Swingset II’

Though most of the songs on Wonder Wheel I were hard to listen to and made me want to stab my face with a dull butter knife, the more I listened the more catchy and bearable some of them became. (yes, I do happen to like ‘Crimes’ a song called ‘Purple’ and a few others) There is emotion attached to these songs, it’s just hard to find buried beneath the mask of odd vocals and the sometimes jarring music. Wonder Wheel I is the kind of record you would play for your friends just so you could get a confirmation as to whether it’s pure genius or just plain horrible.

‘Never in Love’

sean.