Mike Evin - Good Watermelon

By: Alison Lang

Mike Evin
Good Watermelon

(Just Friends)

SOUNDS LIKE: Expertly arranged piano pop as sweet as a slice of summer watermelon, but never cloying.

WHY/WHY NOT: Let's not bullshit around: What we've got here is straight-up, earnest piano pop. You can either hate it or love it. I fall on the latter side of the equation and thus I ate up Evin's perpetually sunny, occasionally rollicking fourth release with a spoon. If you've had the good fortune to see Evin live – whether at festivals, in his brief stopovers in Toronto and Halifax or in his hometown of Montreal – you'll notice that Good Watermelon captures the warm, cozily ramshackle group vibe of his live shows perfectly. Standouts include the soulful, beautifully harmonized floor-shaker "We Should Dance", the Harry Nilsson-esque title track, with its gentle "doo-doos" and background bongos, and the album's lovely, ruminative closer, "Goodnight Crickets". Other reviewers have got it: Evin's musical savvy and good-times attitude do indeed make him the best national treasure you've never heard.