Outsider breakout

Outsider art is coarse, raw and neither immediately accessible nor assessable.

Willis Earl Beal’s debut “Acousmatic Sorcery,” a home-recorded album that springs from Dylan-folk, Waits-blues, soul and hip-hop, fits squarely into the perplexing outsider art catalog.

Like eccentric songwriter Daniel Johnston, Beal sometimes benefits from the simplicity of the lo-fi aesthetic.

“Monotony,” the album’s highlight, is a minimal, soulful song that beautifully takes solace in lonely emptiness.

Still, Beal’s aesthetic choices sometimes swallow this comfort. An unmusical, pitchy “wind chime” sound, one that Beal uses and alludes to in “Bright Copper Noon,” reappears throughout, each time having an unsettling effect.

Part of Beal’s mythology is this detachment. “Ask me who I’m with / and I’ll tell you I’m without,” he sings on “Evening’s Kiss.” But Beal still seeks a connection — he famously posted his phone number on flyers in Chicago, enticing passersby to call and receive a song.

“Acousmatic Sorcery” is best when it is accessible. Beal might be different when he uses dissonance, but he connects when he reaches inward and consoles the soul.