Dolorean
You Can't Win
Beachcomber Blues
Buffalo Gal
What One Bottle Can Do
33-53.9?N/118-38.8?W
My Still Life
Al James's affinity for seat-of-the-pants recording lives on in Dolorean's fourth album, a browbeaten collection of broken bonds and career setbacks that, over a single winter recording weekend, became inverted into yet an...
more »other ear-tingling folk-pop gem for the Portland, Oregon, singer-songwriter. The piano- and guitar-based band is essentially a forum for the barren and lingering compositions of its erudite leader, and James takes great pleasure in both its minimal backing and studio time that is organic and free. And not unlike on previous records, his gentle, nearly undecipherable voice lines up in lockstep with the absorbing comments and questions that begin his songs, such as "Heather, I'm on a plane that I pray won't get off the ground" (in the yearning waltz "Heather Remind Me How This Ends") and "How can you fall in love with the target when I am the gun?" (in the ballad of skepticism "In Love with the Doubt"). The melodies may be slow-moving and the instrumentation laid bare, but this Dolorean package is far more optimistic than intended and supplies the soundtrack for life in general. --Scott Holter