The Lentils, Bed Bits, Outercourse, Salve

I wonder if songwriter Luke Csehak, the eccentric mind behind L.A.-based project the Lentils, starts with the song titles and works from there. They’re so evocative that they read almost like short stories: “A Pocket Full of Blood.” “Babylon in the Basement.” “She Never Was There to Begin With.” “God Save the Jolly Green Giant.” And the songs themselves are spacey sonic wonders, with brittle pop melodies reminiscent of Guided by Voices and the accidental-but-not-really profundity of bedroom composers like Daniel Johnston. On his 2016 album Botanical Castings, Csehak tosses off a line that sounds clever enough, until you realize it perfectly sums up just about every lovesick song ever written: “I’d rather not leave my bed / But the heart is a monster / And it must be fed.”