Novelist/Walking Without Effort

If you seek an artist who combines the songwriting skills of Harry Nilsson and the skewed, old-timey outlook of Van Dyke Parks with the arrangement smarts of Brian Wilson and the imaginative electronic sweep of classic Radiohead, look no further. The California musician and songwriter Richard Swift began issuing CDs and retro-sounding singles in the early 2000s, and this double CD collects his first and second albums. His captivating 2002 debut, WALKING WITHOUT EFFORT, finds Swift flexing his creative muscles on a collection of sun-dappled, vintage-sounding folk-pop, and "Foreward," the magical instrumental introduction to 2004's THE NOVELIST, is the gateway to a perfectly realized set, whose mix of sharp songwriting and contemporary electronica is coated with a patina of sepia-tinged nostalgia.