Bruce Hornsby Non-Secure Connection

Audio Mixers: Wayne Pooley; Bruce Hornsby.

Recording information: April Base; Sound City Studios.

It's hard not to see Non-Secure Connection as a companion piece to Absolute Zero, the 2019 album that marked Bruce Hornsby's first solo record in over 20 years. Non-Secure Connection follows Absolute Zero by a matter of months and it shares a similar adventurous sensibility. If anything, it capitalizes on Hornsby's restlessness, scaling back the lingering echoes of pop and Americana so the pianist can concentrate on jazz and electronica while allowing him the freedom to dabble in R&B. The latter arrives in the form of "Anything Can Happen," a suitably funky oldie Hornsby first attempted with Leon Russell back in the '90s. Russell joins a cast of supporting characters that includes Vernon Reid, Jamila Woods, and James Mercer, but it's the ghost of Justin Vernon that hangs over the album. It's not that Non-Secure Connection sounds like a Bon Iver album, per se, but the elastic electronic arrangements and pensive undertone do feel indebted to Hornsby's chief modern acolyte; after receiving the benediction of the indie tastemaker, the keyboardist has seized the freedom to do whatever. Such freedom may be limitless but it comes at a price -- namely, at the expense of clear melodies. Lyrical lines are here but they're elliptical, requiring the rapt attention of the listener, but hooks aren't the point of Non-Secure Connection. It's a moody puzzle box of an album, one that pays dividends with close listening but one that's also fine as evocative background music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine