I admit I wasn’t familiar with Jon McKiel prior to Bobby Joe Hope, but the Toronto artist has been working with You’ve Changed Records for a while (the label known for artists like Daniel Romano, Partner and Nap Eyes). The main difference from his previous album Memorial Ten Count is not that it sounds more like Broadcast than Built to Spill – it’s the fact that it was partly created from samples left on an old reel-to-reel McKiel purchased from a stranger. This fictional Bobby Joe Hope has helped him create something akin to Gal Gracen’s magnificent 2019 record, but with an even warmer, more intimate atmosphere.
