El Rayo-X

When David Lindley released this solo album in 1981, he was known primarily as a session musician and sideman to the stars (one of whom, Jackson Browne, was a producer on the album). As a frontman, his vision is charmingly off-kilter, as is his odd, reedy voice — but he uses everything (his odd voice, his seemingly bottomless bag of instruments, his limitless grasp of different pop music genres) to create an unrelentingly fun and kaleidoscopically varied pastiche of songs, from the country-rocksteady fusion of “She Took Off My Romeos” to the Cajun ska of “Tu-Ber-Cu-Lucas and the Sinus Blues.”