Chet Faker – Built On Glass – 2014

I love the last line David Jeffries uses in his AllMusic review of the debut album from Chet Faker down below.  “…think calm and cool with purpose, and then get hip to the restrained and resonating sound of Faker.”

My introduction was the video that went along with the third single from this album.  It starts off with the camera pointed straight down at a slowly moving, lonely road at night lit only simply. The viewer is looking as if from the back of a vehicle, the road retreating in the distance, while in the distance a swishing movement all while the bassline oozes in.  The road continues away as we spot that dark shapes slowly moving toward us as Chet’s haunting but silky-buttered falsetto starts in.  The swishing shapes become clear as three women in short shorts and knee-high socks start dancing in their roller skates toward the retreating car.  The song then fully kicks into its smooth sensual nature, accompanied brilliantly by the choreographed skaters.

The whole album just oozes with style and R&B-inspired soul. Its tone is cool and controlled without being indulgent. The production is clean and clear building in layers while still keeping space for the balanced mix of synth and more organic instrumentation to shine and let Chet’s understated crooning vocals tell the story.

AllMusic.com – 4 stars

Seeing as how his come-up number was a trip-hop cover of "No Diggity" and his name is a Kurt Vile-like play on jazz great Chet Baker, Australian electronica producer Nick Murphy aka Chet Faker arrives with two overly clever strikes against him, at least on the surface. Tricky thing is, those who dig into that Blackstreet cover finds themselves enveloped in a warm, soulful slinker of the highest order, but the even better news is that Built on Glass is a rich debut, falling between the two hypotheticals of a James Blake record inspired by joy or a Beck album that should be filed under the category of "earnest." The lyrics offer a lazy fascination with subjects like love, loss, and afternoons off, while swaying tempos support sounds like bubbling house music, jazzy, Joe Pass-like guitar passages, and Faker's warm vocals, which are as if Eddie Vedder were born a slow soul man. The great "Talk Is Cheap" is broken beat house with a wonderful Boz Scaggs feel, while "Cigarettes & Loneliness" is a compositional triumph with interwoven guitars and Faker's lovelorn singing holding the listener's hand as a whirling dervish develops on a rainy Sunday. The volume is only pumped up to a Derrick May or Carl Craig level as highlight "1998" bubbles with that Detroit techno feel, and yet sticking with subdued suits the artist at this point. Built on Glass isn't so much limited as it is a wonderful mood piece, so think calm and cool with purpose, and then get hip to the restrained and resonating sound of Faker.
AllMusic.com David Jeffries