While Rob Cantor has been in music with the band Tally Hall since 2002, this is his first departure from the group. Despite it being a solo endeavor, the album features layered vocals, synths, drums, and classical instruments so I have trouble believing it is a one man act. However he is doing it, he’s doing it well. The twelve track album has a varied yet unified sound to it. Even ask Bandcamp.

Each features his vocals, but few feature them exclusively. He uses his voice alone to sing the gloomier songs and love ballads such as “Lonely (But Not Alone)”, “All I Need is You”, and “In Memoriam”. The rest feature a variety of different back up vocalists and styles. For example, look at the juxtaposition of track three, “Garden of Eden”, with its EOL sound, that uses them for hollow harmonies and track four “The Rendezvous” that features Madi Diaz to allow for call and response vocals.
I am in love with the synths on “Old Bike” and think you all should be too; it even comes with a magical music video to make you love it more. The synths are followed by whimsical, almost “Mary Poppins” type vocals. The message of the song is just sweet enough to make it a summer favorite as it talks about taking a slow ride with friends instead of rushing through life. Powerful female vocals come in to drive home his final message that everyone’s old bike breaks down sometimes, and that’s okay.

Perhaps most accurately described as a collection of songs of companionship, Not a Trampoline wonderfully navigates the battlefield of love to deliver to us an appropriately non-uniform telling of his trials. The loves he speaks of even feature some plutonic loves, as we hear in “In Memoriam.” I see the title as one view of love. Being in love leaves you with uncertain footing, sometimes you’re up in the air, other times you find yourself fallen. Sometimes your jumps match up with another and other times you double jump someone else to get them ahead. It’s hard to say exactly what love is, but Rob Cantor’s album makes one thing clear, no matter how much love is like a trampoline, it is Not a Trampoline.
Favorite Tracks: Old Bike, The Rendezvous, Perfect