locust

Review by David Cowling

Finely honed California country-pop from the Still Searchin’ bluegrass band member. Some things are utilitarian, some are decorative and some are well designed or beautiful - seldom does one find all three in a product, but the Swiss Army Knife can be seen as an object that fits all these criteria. This record has a pretty stout blade, a leading edge pop sensibility as on ‘Kind’, it provides a useful tool as a substitute for the real thing. ‘Show Me State’ and ‘Shy’ are dead ringers for the work of Grant McLennan - you can prise out some humour with ‘Sync. Swimmer’ You can open the bottle labelled Pop with the gentle yearning, ‘Louis.’ ‘Maple Tree’ will transport you back to the freedom of childhood with banjo and nostalgia. Of course such an object can usually perform all tasks adequately but never really master any of them. ‘Skinny Boy’ shows that he can turn his hand to country rock (backed by Belleville) or old fashioned pedal steel driven Hank country with ‘Vacation in the Sun’. All of the various parts fit well together and you can hear the excellent engineering on ‘Fastback’ where a blast of horns and raucous guitar leave the likes of Keane standing at the stop light. The elliptical riff of ‘2’s Better’ shows that he can rise above the satisfactory, warm keyboards and deep drums propelling the song forward. Best of all though is ‘Shy’ which sounds like a great lost Go-Betweens song circa ‘Liberty Belle …’ and what could be better than that? It won’t trim your rogue toenails but this record may find itself a hidden corner of your heart. www.stillsearchin.com