Rating: NN
Much has changed in Jason Lytle’s life since 2005: Grandaddy, his critically acclaimed indie rock band, broke up he left his hometown of Modesto, CA, for the mountains of Arizona and he’s struggled with substance abuse problems. Despite all that, his music has remained the same – exactly the same – although this solo debut fixates less on feeling isolated in a high-tech world than on nostalgia for the past.
[rssbreak]
Here’s the problem: during Lytle’s music-industry hiatus, bands like Bon Iver and Chad VanGaalen have freshened up the soft-sung isolationist alt-folk genre – Lytle’s forte – leaving this new material sounding like old news. The tunes remain pleasantly unhurried, lush and laid-back but fail to stimulate. His small, fragile voice now seems slightly whiny and affected. When he sings, “I may be limping / but I’m coming home” on the title track, you feel like asking him to quit the melodrama (and wheel-spinning) already.
Top track: Birds Encouraged Him
