The fifth full-length by the brilliantly wry San Francisco songwriter Sonny Smith and his ever-revolving band of Sunsets, Talent Night at the Ashram, is also Smith’s densest yet. Continuing the enforced eclecticism of his 100 Records project, not all of Smith’s experiments work—the synth-pop of “Cheap Extensions” feels extramuted—but mostly, the Sunsets hit the sweet spot of familiar rockisms delivered with self-aware playfulness and reinvention. Many of Smith’s newest songs come loaded with plots and conceits, like the intrigues of the title track, the mysteries of “The Secluded Estate” and the Kafka-esque injustices of “The Application.” Hard to absorb but easy to love, Smith’s ever-raised eyebrows and ingrained song-sense are benevolent forces for the listener. Smith is at his best, perhaps, when writing (relatively) straightforward laments like “Baby Jokin.” Stellar melodies sometimes
seem obscured by character studies, as on “Icelene’s Loss,” or it could be the other way around.