On first blush, one might assume that the new Longboat record Album 28 has been given a rather tongue-in-cheek moniker. Yet it is not hyperbolic – and really just a hair past the halfway point set by the Seattle songwriter / arranger / multi-instrumentalist Igor Keller. The man has a head full of music and has set a goal of releasing at least fifty full-length recordings. That is “if my own obscurity and the semi-ancient Trans-Carpathian curse don’t conspire to do me in before then. I’m hoping that by the 50^th album I will have run out of subject matter, motivation, and sanity.”

Luckily for us, there are still quite a lot of notes rattling around inside Keller’s head. Album 28 follows the downtempo meditation on mortality Goodbye, Stranger and 2022’s pair of companion releases The Cold War 1 and The Cold War 2, which captured the tension of surviving a world seemingly always on the brink of destroying itself and the personal experiences of those who were affected by the wide-ranging conflict.

Today Longboat has dropped the video for one of the great tracks on Album 28 titled “Stupid People.” Keller says about the single, “Stupid people are predictable; bad ideas couched in the right terms will appeal to them. Moments of clarity are few and far between. And judiciousness is just a big word that isn’t worth looking up. It would be kind of funny if it wasn’t so pervasive throughout our dystopian wonderland.  This is a song about them, the stupid among us.”

Album 28, thematically, runs the gamut from revenge to spite, to unwanted – yet profound – advice to fellow humans. Says Keller, “I feel an especially strong attachment to Dystopia Now! It reflects a reality that seems to be permanently with us. I’m also particularly fond of the arrangement.  It’s kind of a Rossini-meets-disappointing-modern-times approach.”

Some tunes are dour while others soar, some fight today’s wars while a track or two might evoke the mud and trenches of the First World War. Centering the record, though, are the ethereal, commanding strings. Album 28, sonically, is a record of delightful contrast. Instrumentally, it was built intentionally on a foundation of electronics with string orchestra (and occasional acoustic guitar). “The live instruments warm up the electronics and the electronics cool down the live instruments” explains Keller. “As always, the key to a really good arrangement is to give the strings some room. They give the songs breadth and scope.”

Written in Keller’s cluttered Belltown bunker, Album 28 was recorded at Studio Litho with Floyd Reitsma (Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews) recording and mixing. Keller composed, arranged, and produced the record.  Ryan Leyva ((Acid Tongue) played acoustic guitar and provided superior backing vocals. The otherworldly string section was composed of musicians drawn from the ranks of the Seattle Symphony and the Pacific Northwest Ballet. “Their level of musicianship is unattainable by most mortals. My dim brain can barely comprehend that it exists,” laments Keller. “I can’t wait to bring them back for Album 35…”