Beard & Glasses, 'Born at the Wrong Time' 

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• Beard & Glasses, Born at the Wrong Time

(Self-released, digital)

Producers Matt Scott and Sam Clement met at Bennington College in 2004 and soon became frequent collaborators. Between doing session work together and playing in bands such as psych-rock trio Tighten, Scott and Clement developed an indie rock-meets-funk-meets-pop sound that is encapsulated by their new project, Beard & Glasses.

Scott's musical résumé boasts an eclectic mix of activities, from incarnating his instrumental hip-hop alter ego, Elder Orange, to playing in R&B outfit the NEKTones and contributing to rapper Fattie B's 2022 album, GUMBO. Clement's solo work, such as his 2020 record ARTEMIS, often focuses on ambience. When these myriad approaches intertwine, you get the slightly strange but incredibly listenable Born at the Wrong Time.

The duo's debut kicks off with the striking "War Without Room for an Argument." Over a roadhouse blues keyboard figure, Scott's vocal comes through as brightly as a burst of sunlight through a window, powerful and reminiscent of Irish singer-songwriter Hozier.

"Hunger makes us do some crazy things / War without room for an argument," Scott sings, opening the record on a philosophical note that is nicely, if somewhat ambiguously, tied up by the line "When the cat's away / you'll know where to find me."

The potential pitfalls of producing your own work rear their ugly heads on the title track, an otherwise powerfully uplifting rock/indie-soul mashup, when Scott goes all in on auto-tuning his vocals for the song's hook. The move falls a little flat, suggesting a guitarist who perhaps should have left the wah pedal at home.

It's a momentary blip, though, as the band drops an R&B-leaning soft jam titled "My Love (Is Like a River)," featuring clever back-and-forth between Clement's guitar and the keys as Scott pushes into falsetto. Beard & Glasses could easily just have made an album to fuck to — they clearly have that mode in their bag — but they seem to have little desire to stay in one place on Born at the Wrong Time.

With "A Better Version of Me," Southern rock and hints (only hints, thankfully) of jam creep in. But, as on most of the record, Scott and Clement are so completely in control of their sound that they wield the different genres like carpenters do a tool belt. They go full folk ditty on "Bottom of the Bottle," only to switch gears on indie rocker "Eternal Interstate."

The tonal fidelity that the record maintains amid its variety does credit to the duo's songwriting chops as well as its obvious comfort in the studio. Clement and Scott run Akin Studios in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., where they recorded much of the LP and spent years writing these songs — and it shows. By the album's closer, electro-soul jam "Prism," Beard & Glasses have moved through many different shades, but the record never loses the cohesion of one gorgeously colored-in painting.

Born at the Wrong Time is available at beardandglasses.bandcamp.com.