Market is the songwriting project of Brooklyn producer Nate Mendelsohn.

"...twisted pop perfection... the product of Nate Mendelsohn’s singular artistic vision that can’t be easily compared to anyone else." —Popmatters

"Well I Asked You a Question is a relaxed but intricate art pop album, with Mendelsohn and his collaborators consistently meeting each other in just the right places to best serve these tracks." —Rosy Overdrive

"there’s something of a modern Nilsson Sings Newman mood to these wry, melancholic songs that the accomplished Brooklyn producer and writer has crafted alongside a cast of very fine local musicians, mixed in with flashes of Sparklehorse and perhaps Radiohead." —The New Cue

Well I Asked You A Question is the incredible name of his incredible second record for Western Vinyl, released November 01 digitally and on LP.



The reliably inventive songwriting project Market is a vessel for Mendelsohn’s obsessive questions and answers, recollections of conversation and interior monologues. Well I Asked You A Question, his second release for Western Vinyl, is a giant step inward, brimming with a humorous, neurotic candor only outmatched by a wide and colorful sonic palette. Calling the album “a personal vision of pop music,” Mendelsohn blends internet eclecticism, adventurous orchestration, and hyper-focused production throughout the album, building a whole from the fragments of his curiosity.

As he cultivates the most distinctive Market record to date, what feels most subversive this go-around is the lyrical perspective Mendelsohn has honed. A puzzle and language aficionado, he pours a surplus of energy into these wordy and empathetic songs. The lyrical topics have been filtered through Mendelsohn’s obsessive tendencies, and in some cases those tendencies are in fact the topic at hand. The consequences of his plain-spoken language may be small, and that’s the point. Take “Apple,” a recollection of his dad’s frustration at Mendelsohn’s twin sister arriving six-minutes late, spun out into a study of nature and nurture, and the magical meaning he assigns to being six-minutes her junior. He wonders aloud: “how could I not see by now? / the frightening percentile of gifts the apple gave / and sure the curses / the bruised and broken edges where the fruit is at its worst is / just part of how we’re made.” On “Water Spilling Test,” described as “a breakup song, zoomed way in,” Mendelsohn meditates on how destructively a glass of water could be spilled, what can be ruined in a moment’s time. “Sertraline” is a rushing fever dream about “self-mythologizing, art making, archiving, and understanding yourself through the stories you cling to, mutate, and sometimes reject.” As the song culminates and builds to an orchestral eddy, Mendelsohn balances everything with a coda that starts with a playful nod to Radiohead: “a pig in a cage on klonopin / baby are you listening? / I don’t have that peace of mind anymore / obviously I’m tougher than / even just a year ago / dicing up your ego / what a bore.”