Summer of Fear is the culmination of years spent in eight-track studios, cypher-fueled jam sessions, and dicey club dates that often ended in fist fights and broken glass. Not to mention a revolving door of collaborators that helped Robinson work out the kinks in his skewed pop hooks and melancholic melodies, including the Grizzly Bear members (drummer Christopher Bear, multi-instrumentalist/producer Chris Taylor) who worked on Robinson’s self-titled solo disc several winters ago—the winter before the fear set in. As acclaimed as Robinson’s debut was when it finally received a proper pressing in 2008 (a CD-R version first infiltrated Brooklyn in late 2006), the effort was meant to be a glorified demo. Summer of Fear is what happened six months prior, as life alternated between darkness and light, and spare bedroom songs blossomed into speaker-popping arrangements of sweeping strings, honking horns, and chords that cut so deeply they’re bound to leave a mark. A biting cross-section of Petty and Dylan, Pavement and Fleetwood Mac, delivering a eulogy to yesterday and the curtain-drawing promise of another day. Not just any day, either; a day Robinson’s determined to seize on an international stage, with a battered guitar by his side and a four-alarm fire in his chest.