B-Side Guys

Jeremy Abboud was twelve when Sgt. Pepper’s opened what he describes as “the whole world of color,” and “Wonder” is the sound of someone who has been living inside that description ever since. The SMiLE-era Beach Boys influence is audible throughout, the layered harmonies and bright arrangements that Brian Wilson built to capture something just beyond the reach of ordinary pop, and Abboud deploys it in service of a tribute to his late dog Echo. That combination is either going to land, or it isn’t, and it lands.

The Rockyts is Abboud’s solo project now, assembled in a Los Angeles basement after his Ottawa bandmates left for university, and “Wonder” is the second single from his upcoming third album Don’t Give Up the Ship. He plays every instrument and records himself, which gives the production an internal coherence that collaborative records sometimes miss. The decision to write a grief song as a celebration of color rather than a lament turns out to be the right one: Echo becomes the occasion for the song’s brightness rather than the shadow behind it.

Abboud has been working in this mode since his teens, including sessions with engineer Eddie Kramer in Toronto, and the accumulated fluency shows. The harmonies have the confidence of someone who has been listening to this specific lineage long enough to understand what makes it work rather than just what it sounds like. Al Jardine of The Beach Boys called the project “wonderful,” which is either meaningful context or an extremely convenient pull quote, but the music doesn’t need the endorsement.

At 21 and fully independent, Abboud is making records that know exactly what they want to be. “Wonder” is one of them.