Jon McKiel

Hex is wonderfully wrong.

Through a haze of fake nostalgia, warped tape loops and wayward saxophones, Canadian space cadet Jon McKiel has delivered an album as catchy as it is unnerving. The rhythm slinks and shudders underneath the hooky overtones. The guitar heroics of “String” unspool at impossible angles, “Everlee” sounds like a lost Byrds classic retrofitted with dread and song of the year contender “Hex” is Tom Waits’ “Clap Hands” turned into an R&B track. We talked to McKiel below.