Let You Down
Kingsbury Manx's second album,Let You Down, comes as a  reminder that the simplest pleasures, often, are the best. "We have  tried / To simplify our lives / To balance lows and highs," sing the Kingsbury Manx, on the gorgeous, lilting "Simplify." As rock & roll  statements of intent go, you seldom come across a more humble  claim--but then, anyone who's heard the North Carolina quartet's  eponymous 2000 debut should know that theirs is a talent that you  really don't need to shout in anyone's face. The unexpected success ofThe Kingsbury Manxfound these four shy college graduates hitting the road  withCalexicoandStephen Malkmus. While the follow-up,Let You Down, was recorded  with one-timeSlintproducer  Brian Paulson in sleepy Virginia, this is far from a difficult  math-rock beast: characterized by the guitar-sliding, bass-stroking,  cymbal-teasing all-round gentleness of the opening title track, and  gliding through wry banjo-accompanied lullabies ("Et Tu, Kitte?"),  lavish orchestral happenings ("Baby You're a Dead Man"), and incandescent, harmony-laden alt-rock dreamers ("Courtyard Waltz"). It  all ends on "Do What You're Told": the sound of the four Kingsbury Manxers, "drunk as winos," stretched out in a meadow, playing guitars  and watching aeroplanes paint long curves of vapor across the clear  blue sky.--Louis Pattison