The car windows are down, the air is warm, and the possibilities are boundless. On Cut Worms, the new self-titled album from Brooklyn-based Max Clarke, the singer-songwriter and musician continues his exploration of what he calls “pop essentialism”. Mining the golden hits of yesteryear for a timeless double A-side sound, he contemplates age-old questions through a modern lens. He leaves behind the legendary studio and sought-after producers for a more homegrown approach, working with a cast of gifted friends and collaborators. The result is a compact collection of daydream anthems that live between the summer’s hopeful beginnings and the season’s fleeting end.

 

Clarke went about overdubbing in his signature fashion and found himself leaning toward arrangements that translate more easily to a live performance. The instrumentation is subtle and the harmonies often delicate. Clarke’s tenor sits front and center amid an ensemble of celestial guitar leads, stacked horns and strolling piano lines. The success of last year’s self-recorded single “Dream Most Wild” gave him the confidence to take on the roles of mixer and producer for the first time on a full-length release.

 

In many ways, this record is a response to 2020’s Nobody Lives Here Anymore, Clarke’s expansive LP recorded in Memphis. While writing new material, he challenged himself to cut out extraneous detail and hang on to the essentials of what makes a song stronger. “How much can I say and give in a limited amount of time?”