With jazz musicians emphatically parking their proverbial tanks on lawns until recently only reserved for pop, electronic or rock artists, it’s perhaps inevitable that someone as brazenly extrovert as Louis Cole should leap into view. The LA-based drummer/keyboardist/ singer’s heavy electro-fusion band, Knower, have been making florescent coloured waves with their rabid live shows and punk-funk albums, but Cole as solo artist is indicative of our deceptive times – here, eschewing muso bravado for shocking emotional honesty. Thus his debut solo album is less of a showcase for his virtuosic jack-hammer beats (there are some, though) but a more playful, by turns annoying and thrilling, ride through his chameleon-esque sound palette. Even the silliest songs here have a musicianly-swagger: Brad Mehldau jumps into the synth-funk melee of ‘Real Life’ – serving up a swerving piano solo – Dennis Hamm does the same on ‘Trying Not To Die’. Prince might have nicked the sonorous slow post-coital funk jam ‘After The Load Is Blown’, yet Cole’s angle is to explore his own vulnerability rather than crow about a conquest. West Coast writing partner Thundercat provides vocals for the gargantuan synth-hooks of ‘Tunnels In The Air’, while ‘A Little Bit More Time’ and ‘Things’ sound like heartfelt homages to The Beach Boys and The Mamas & the Papas. Reinvigorating the mainstream may be the current jazz scene’s greatest legacy, and even if all of Cole’s ideas don’t always hit the mark you have to respect the passion with which he wears his musical heart on his trademark skeleton-shirt’s sleeve.