This coming Friday will see the release of Jon Stancer’s debut solo album For The Birds (iTunes preorder) on which, Toronto singer/songwriter Jon dabs his brush in many musical palettes. Produced by Jono Grant (John Southworth), the album is a collection of lush hook-laden pop-rock, connected by lyrical themes that touch on reclusiveness, regret, revision and rejuvenation.

A veteran vocalist and guitarist within Toronto’s alternative music scene, Stancer took a break for several years until he gave in to the urge to make his own album. After recording demos in his home studio, Stancer called on Grant to produce, and the two joined forces at Grant’s Victory Drive Studios in downtown Toronto.

The results on For The Birds contain all the basic ingredients for great rock and roll: energetic drums, buoyant bass lines, bright acoustic and shiny electric guitars, piano and organ, with horns, strings and a range of percussion adding sonic nuances.

Stancer has delved into such mottled territory before, notably on his former band Family Ritual’s 1999 album Saloon, and as a guitarist and vocalist on John Southworth’s 1997 cult classic debut, Mars Pennsylvania.

Stancer, in fact, first started writing original material in his early teens and became a staunch Brian Wilson admirer with goals to create similar, multi-layered pop. On For The Birds, Stancer found that returning to a simpler approach better suited his current creative process, but remnants of his sonically ambitious past make for a rewarding listening experience from an artist whose time has finally come.