Before sharing 2018's Mallorca EP, his first music to be released under his own name, U.K. songwriter and analog-digital home recordist James Alexander Bright made a handful of more-collaborative recordings under the moniker Hairy Hands. Still channeling the dreamy, lo-fi electronic pop and woozy R&B grooves of that project, Bright makes his full-length solo debut with 2020's Headroom. Recording the vast majority of it on his own, the ten-track set edits together the creations of handheld tools including a tape deck and various samplers and effects pedals in addition to live instruments. Among the albums' textured, trippy arrangements are bass lines and saxophone performances provided by friends, including prior collaborator Charlie Carroll on sax. The smooth, funky bass lines found here are often accompanied by diverse, skittering percussion that, on opening track "Go," includes live hi-hat patterns and Bright's own mouth and breath. Laid-back, jazzy guitar and layered vocals also feature prominently on the track, which eventually adds saxophone and spacy effects including noise to its warped production. The mood remains chill and weird for most of the album, though "Lead Me Astray" presents a more anxious post-punk with synth bass and a danceable tempo, and the daydream-like "Dancing with the Birds" is an acoustic-leaning, experimental effort with manipulated voice samples, fingerstyle guitar, and flute. Percussion on the song is limited to spare tambourine and the odd handclap. Nature recordings of birds are also worked into the design. Contributing further to the off-balance nature of Headroom are three varied instrumentals and a nearly nine-minute closing track, the reflective "Friends (Lovers Lost)," which starts out as an acoustic-guitar reverie until dance elements join in after about a minute. Headroom's biggest strengths lie in its juxtaposition of relaxing grooves and unpredictable textures rather than in its core songwriting, but it delivers just enough of all the above to make for both compelling headphone listening or urban-afternoon ambiance.