Although adept at the theatrics of murmurs and insinuation, Carroll makes his spoken verse resonate by blowing a bit of hot air into it. About half the tracks here are recitations backlit with abstract sounds created by synths or guitars. The rest are rock tunes, and these suggest that oomph and hooks are also a poet's tools. Obfuscation is a rock-poesy copout, but Pools of Mercury is cloudy only when it chooses to be. Where McLachlan's lyrics imply profound but unspecific meanings and limitless but nameless yearnings, Paige goes for the simple and the immediate.
Some boys get chemistry sets.
Others get home recording studios. Back in his teens, Warren DeFever, who essentially is His Name Is Alive, converted his parents' suburban Detroit basement into a Hipsville USA assembly line of experimental pop. The arrangement has afforded this mad scientist the opportunity to kick out the indie jams in various guises. He then moved on to more abrasive and eclectic fare, employing everything from guitar distortion to homemade loops. Unfortunately, the cosmic sloppiness of the soul jams suggests that DeFever may be reaching for something beyond his grasp.