White Life is something of a departure for Jon Ehrens, the prolific and chameleonic singer-songwriter previously best known for indie bands like the idiosyncratic Art Department and the lo-fi Repelican. For one of the first times in his career, Ehrens is sharing vocal and production duties on White Life’s self-titled debut, which was recorded with Chris and Mickey Freeland at Beat Babies, and features several lead vocal performances by his sister Emily Ehrens. But more significantly, White Life is a big stylistic left turn for Ehrens into the world of synths, drum machines and unabashedly pop vocal performances.

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Jon Ehrens is a serial band inventor in the Robert Pollard mode. Just as the Guided By Voices frontman frequently comes up with aliases to release music under, sometimes fashioning unique musical identities and even elaborate fictional backstories, Ehrens constantly records under names like the Hypnic Jerks, Factoid of the Dustbowl, and Spittn’ Images, often just for one album or a few songs, before moving onto the next idea. One of his many solo recording projects, The Art Department, even became a live trio that gigs steadily around Baltimore.

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