Ceti Alpha

For the first six tracks of this third Ceti Alpha release, Nick Bevan-John uses the power-pop side of his brain. He finds like minds in Michael Jackson (guitar), Ken LeBlanc and Mike O’Neil (bass) and James McNeil (drums). The album kicks off with “Cocaine Teenage Riot,” an opener built around a spiky riff, which pairs surprisingly well with Bevan-John’s shy, shadowy vocals. The three electronic tracks (seven, eight and nine) seem as though Bevan-John gets lost in his own thoughts, but he regains clarity with the remaining five tracks, which draw on acoustic instruments, folkier arrangements and the darker mood one’s come to expect from the Dartmouth artist and great musical mind.