Paul de Jong is best known as the co-founder, cellist and resident found sound savant of the beloved, defunct collage-pop duo, the Books. Five years after that band delivered their final album, The Way Out, to much acclaim, de Jong delivers his first solo album. IF sets the Books' early albums (particularly The Lemon of Pink) as a starting point, and elevates that beguiling sense of wonder and amazement to genuinely transcendent new heights. De Jong's ability to find the musical in the mundane has always been uncanny — it is part of what made the Books so magical – and that gift is what makes IF such a marvelous curiosity, and such a true pleasure to hear.