Jason Hill has worn a few different musical hats. He sang with a Southern drawl when fronting '90s alt-country hopefuls Convoy. In the first decade of the 21st century, he put on eyeliner and a British accent as the frontman for pop dandies Louis XIV. Where Hill’s hilarious vocal airs in that band recalled those on Rockwell’s 1984 album Somebody's Watching Me, here he dons a voice that mirrors Goddess in the Doorway–era Mick Jagger. But it’s his exemplary guitar playing that really sings. Hill introduces The Synthetic Love of Emotional Engineering—the debut from his group Vicky Cryer—with red-hot distorted leads that are as endearingly scuzzy as the flirty lyrics of the opening song, “Smut.” He’s also enlisted the help of an alternating rhythm section that features drummers Dave Elitch (Mars Volta) and Dominic Howard (Muse) and bassists Nick Fyffe (Jamiroquai) and Mark Stoermer (The Killers). In the equally salacious “Girls,” Hill’s production work stands out, with radio-friendly future-funk trimmed with studio glitter and dance-floor gold. The epic eight-minute title track muses on Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World with heavy nods to Prince.