MARKER STARLING - Anchors And Ampersands (Sealed) (CD)

20 years don’t pass for a person without them picking up some stories along the way. Just ask Toronto eccentric RNB popster Chris A Cummings – aka Marker Starling – whose own ups, downs, sorrows and successes he’s been chronicling in sunshine-sweet, romantic avant-pop songs for two decades now, each one a postcard from a different moment in his life. Anchors & Ampersands, his latest album, revisits some of the best of those tracks: a career-spanning collection of cuts dating back to 1997 that would be a greatest hits album, were it not for one twist. Recorded live with arresting new arrangements, it’s at once at a live album, greatest hits, step forward and breadcrumb trail of tales from Cummings’ last 20 years as a musician, friend and father.