Tom Lynch

Elliott Smith, "New Moon"(Kill Rock Stars)
Posthumous records are always tricky, as questions of validity, artist intention, motive and strength of material all come into to play. For the most part, they can be ignored, unless you're a diehard fan. "New Moon," however, is more of a long-lost album than a collection of muddy, unrefined songs--recorded in the mid-nineties, mostly by Smith himself, most of these tracks come from his "Elliott Smith" and "Either/Or" days, when he was still quite quiet, aching, armed with only an acoustic guitar and his whispery, always-doubled vocals. The liner notes tell us that these songs are rather interchangeable with the material on those two records--that Smith greatly struggled with selecting the final tracks--and it's apparent from the start. These are not throwaways--tracks "Angel in the Snow," "First Timer, "New Disaster," "See You Later" are some of the best Smith heard in a while, even if they are a decade old--and the early version of Smith's breakout single, the Oscar-nominated "Miss Misery," shows a still-young songwriter battling with his own talent, a sad, already-tired man who would be gone from here far too soon.

dntel, "Dumb Luck" (Sub Pop)
I've always thought that Jimmy Tamborello's first dntel record, "Possibilities," held up well against his work on the Postal Service's "Give Up" (he's the electronic piece of the puzzle), so much so that I rather preferred it when the two were compared during late-night, often drunken discourse. Funny that Tamborello named this follow-up "Dumb Luck"--while he's probably selling himself a bit short, the level of dumb luck that sparked the popularity of the Postal Service, and in turn the global recognition of dntel, is astounding--but even better, he doesn't include Ben Gibbard on any tracks this time around, instead turning to other modern indie rock stalwarts like Conor Oberst and Lali Puna's Valerie Trebeljahr. While the record boasts less memorable songs than its predecessor, the inventive IDM and live instrumentation mix is still prevalent. Its importance, unfortunately, makes the moments when Tamborello invites in guests more or less distracting. Closer "Dreams," however, has an epic mix of vocals and a staggeringly beautiful buildup--this send-off probably makes you feel the album's better than it really is, but, hey, it's still a great song.

Lou Reed, "Hudson River Wind Meditations" (Sounds True)
While the great songwriter confounded with 1975's "Metal Machine Music"--an epic instrumental record based in heavily distorted guitars and strange, mechanical subtext--it still made sense for a rock star to lose his mind and try to do something different. "Hudson River Wind Meditations," which is quite different from his other instrumental work, confounds again. Written primarily for himself and friends, Reed's built a handful of songs for mediation: bass-heavy ambient noise, hypnotic at times, deranged and irritating at others. There are only four "songs" but the album clocks in at over an hour, the tracks swarming into one another. There are two types of people--those who will find this organic and thought-provoking, and those who will find it vexing and boring. I'm in the latter boat, because, as this is not quite Enya, it's no Eno either.

(2007-05-14)

Also by Tom Lynch

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The Story of a Band
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Better Men
(2007-03-27)

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