It's no revelation that sometimes things don't turn out the way you plan them, but one of the hardest parts of growing up is realizing that you're not where your younger self imagined you as an adult. It's that struggle to balance who you wanted to be with whom you are that drives Brent Puls' latest release, the lushly layered folk pop gem West of the Lake. The Chicago-born and raised Puls is a master of simple lyrical sentiment that feels at once uncomfortably intimate and broad enough to touch the life of every listener. That¹s probably because Puls has written and played music for a lot of listeners ­ from making beats for hip hop acts in the mid-'90s as DJ Cardboard Box to co-founding celebrated Midwestern soul rockers Bumpus to fronting Chicago glam pop outfit Grammar.

Along the way the 35-year-old learned a few important things about life and music that inspired him to step out from behind the band curtain to release his first solo work. "You really can't go back," he says. "No matter what your mistakes or missteps have been, they inform every decision you make. This is a record about realizing that you're not invincible, that you do need other people to learn from and that you can't ever predict the future. But why the hell would you want to?"

Anyone who has spent time in Chicago will realize that "Everything west of the lake" is, well, everything, and that part of being young and looking at the life ahead of you is to think that it¹s all yours to take. Letting go of that reality and accepting the one that you face every day is the stilts on which 'West of the Lake' stands, wobbling ever so slightly from excitement but not anymore from uncertainty.
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