Robby Krieger - Singularity (2010)

Whenever an album contains intros that stretch over the three-minute mark, it’s a safe bet that the record can’t be called “urgent,” and so is the case with Singularity, Robby Krieger’s first album in a decade. Like Cinematix before it, Singularity is a jazz fusion session in an old-fashioned sense, relying on Rhodes keyboards and lite funk grooves, sounding a bit like a cross between Jeff Beck’s Blow by Blow and Steely Dan’s Aja, graced with a little bit of Boz Scaggs’ cool touch and a lot of Krieger’s winding single-note lines. There may be a clear through-line from the guitar solo of “Light My Fire” to this but that doesn’t mean Krieger is playing it safe: on those intros he indulges in some fleet flamenco fingerwork, easily the most notable new wrinkle among the ten cuts here, but even when he eases back to his comfort zone there’s a fluidity in his fretwork that keeps things engaging and sometimes even combats the thick retro haze that hangs over the record.