MUSIC

Album Reviews


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Published: May 19, 2010

Damien Jurado: Saint Bartlett (Secretly Canadian)

Even The Lows Are High

Naturally: Just when you think Seattle's Jurado, 10 LPs in, has run out of variants on the dour moper, he finds a somber left turn. This time out: Jurado, plumbing depths brought on by friends' hard times, teams with producer/labelmate Richard Swift for an album performed by just the two of them. The result: a cascading austerity, from the echoing swells of "Cloudy Shoes" to the high lonesome of "With Lightning in Your Hands." Granted: It's not a drastic stylistic turn, but this is a well you go to till it's dry, which will probably be a theme on Jurado's 11th. —Brian Howard

David Cross: Bigger and Blackerer (Sub Pop)

Cross Fire

Beloved: for his nuanced/wacky performances in ensemble situations (Mr. Show, Arrested Development, etc.), David Cross is darker and less reliable when he's gotta carry the whole damn thing. Generally: his comedy is fun and easy; he gets really righteous about religion and politics and takes it wonderfully too far. But that book he put out last year was weak sauce. With: Bigger and Blackerer, Cross makes a strong case for his durability as a standup. This time his most effective/dickheaded tirades concern Catholics, Orthodox Jews and junkies. —Patrick Rapa

Kurt Vile: Square Shells (Matador)

Prodigal Child Returns

Having proven: his prowess in the deafening psychedelic rock realm, Philly son Kurt Vile revisits his quieter beginnings. The seven new songs on the Square Shells EP recall his early CD-R adventures — abstract soundscapes, folk homages. Sexy space jams and all: the drum-loop meditation "Invisibility: Nonexistent" spends seven minutes contemplating cognition and memory: "I find it/ Then I don't know where to put it/ Then it's gone." Elsewhere: he place-checks City Hall on the lyrically surreal "I Know I Got Religion" ("I dropped myself a penny off of William Penn's head"), his best folk strummer since "My Sympathy." —John Vettese