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Ryan Reed of Relix.com last weekend also reviewed Francis' "In Plain Sight", "Neal Francis is a keyboard virtuoso with a knack for quietly soulful grooves—a sharp pop hook-writer with a penchant for psychedelic jams, a lyricist with a tongue in cheek and a heart on sleeve. Which is to say: You can trace his delightful second LP, In Plain Sight, back to a lot of obvious influences: Leon Russell, Elton John, The Flaming Lips, Steely Dan. But he combines those sounds in ways that always feel a bit surprising. “Alameda Apartments” opens the album with a shining rainbow of piano, synth and harpsichord, with Francis’ lyrics adding a surreal layer—a ghost haunting—into what initially scans as a straightforward breakup tale. “Can’t Stop the Rain” rolls around in the bluesy mud, with the frontman’s sleepy croon brushing up Derek Trucks’ signature slide-guitar spasms and a crunchy keyboard tone that feels like it could have been recorded in 1967."

“Sentimental Garbage” transforms from a melancholy soul tune into lava-lamp-worthy, art-rock show piece. All of these sonic twists (captured, naturally, on tape and largely recorded in a Chicago church) are accentuated by the reliably organic mix of Dave Fridmann—a kindred spirit in every sense. But you get the sense Francis’ rock-solid songcraft would even survive on a bedroom four-track."

“It’s a song about my breakup and the circumstances that led to me living in the church, where I’m owning up to all my problems within my relationships and my sobriety,”

Recorded entirely on tape with his bandmates Kellen Boersma (guitar), Mike Starr (bass), and Collin O’Brien (drums), "In Plain Sight" bears a lush and dreamlike quality, thanks in large part to Francis’s restless experimentation with a stash of analog synths lent by his friends in his early days at the church. “My sleep schedule flipped and I’d stay up all night working on songs in this very feverish way,” he says.

“I just needed so badly to get completely lost in something.” In a move partly inspired by Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, "In Plain Sight" takes its title from a track Francis ended up scrapping from the album.