Silver Lake
Count on two things: Vic Chesnutt will approach any topic, from the delicate to the mundane, from an unexpected angle. And with an incisive eye and razor wit, he will always cut straight to the heart of the matter. He does so to great effect onSilver Lake, giving equal weight to the tender affirmation of "In My Way, Yes" and the scathing self-critique of "Styrofoam," and applying his delightfully odd spin to the standard love story on both "Band Camp" (a funny, nostalgic tale of romance in the high school horn section) and theBrian Wilsonhomage "Fa-La-La" (a saga of unanswered longing that's set in a hospital). Chesnutt's idiosyncratic quaver and nylon-string strum are abetted throughout by generous rock and soul arrangements, all of which were pristinely recorded by Daniel Lanois protege Mark Howard (who also produced Lucinda Williams'sWorld Without Tears). Top to bottom, this may be Chesnutt's best effort since his 1996 discAbout to Choke.--Anders Smith Lindall