Dodd Michael Lede

When you get your first look at the cover art for Dodd Michael Lede’s Whatever Happened to You, electronica immediately comes to mind. What other genre of music would have a photograph of a man painted fluorescent, Linda Blair-puke green sitting in the middle of a city sidewalk?

Surprise, surprise! Lede’s debut disc is actually a collection of straight-up folk-rock and ’70s and ’80s-informed pop-rock. The first half of the album shines as Lede indulges in his folk tendencies. The disc’s opener and best track, “Blue Sky Felling,” sounds reminiscent of Duncan Sheik, yet Lede’s melodies and hooks lift the song beyond sound-alike status, and Lede’s knack for crafting catchy, toe-tapping hooks is in full force throughout the album. Even when his lyrics lapse into corniness (“O5/02”), it’s forgivable because he’s good at it.

As the CD spins on into its second half, and as the ’70s and ’80s influences become more and more apparent, Lede’s pop sensibilities become less agreeable. The string of Foreigner-style power ballads set off by “Remember the Day” are out of place and dull. While the songs are catchy, you feel pretty silly enjoying them.

And then there’s “Pretend.” At first it’s odd to hear Myrna Sanders singing, well, lead, instead of Lede, but once you get past that and start listening to the lyrics, you realize that this is a song defending Britney Spears. With lyrics like “you only see me as a girl / not quite a woman” and “everything that you read / is something someone else said” you begin to realize that Lede does have a lot of — perhaps too much — sympathy for Spears.

It’s a strange turn on an album that promised so much more than mere weirdness. But then the cover should have been a warning.