Singer/songwriter Tommy Harrington is now officially my hero. With a knack for melody and a penchant for hooks, indie rock goes back to its barest roots with this album entirely written, played, and produced by one very hard-working man. Coming off as a cross between David Bowie and the Cure, which is then chopped up and thrown in a lo-fi blender to achieve the soft consistency of Elliott Smith, Let Go Afterglow effortlessly bounces from energetic reminiscences on growing up to slow-paced, almost trip-hop-like somnolence in touching pieces about relationships past. Harrington breaks out all the stops on this very personal, emotional work of art.

The best way to experience Let Go Afterglow for the first time would be in a pitch-black, otherwise-soundless room. In such an environment, the album’s countless endearing hooks would not be missed. Cheap keyboard effects and other electronic bells and whistles enrich and amplify each track’s understated brilliance, whereas the same effects would seem trite or gimmicky in another band’s work.

Harrington’s standout song is clearly “Afterglow,” where he harnesses the brazen hooks of a Jets to Brazil or an Archers of Loaf, without either band’s overanxious bark. “Let’s get honest/cuz everybody’s lying… Let’s get nervous/and tell ourselves not to.” Hurried vocals are rushed along by Harrington’s manic will, before being thrown into a stream of guitar and self-motivated energy: “Cuz I’m moving/ I always feel like I’m way too slow.” Following the paced burst of enthusiasm on “Afterglow,” “Forever” inspires a hypnotic trance with its complex, never-ending guitar line and the singer’s transcendent effortful voice.

Let Go Afterglow is an impressive display of a single man’s adeptness at the musical arts. With a skill that’s rarely seen in music, Harrington shows what it truly means to deal in indie rock.