Shadow Dancer
From Tav Falco you get music from a man who knows what he likes, and that's rockabilly, bluesy soul, and lounge music presented with an amateurish gusto.Shadow Dancer, his eighth album since he first emerged with his band (which included Alex Chilton) in the early '80s, lovingly explores his lounge lizard muse. The Panther Burns (featuring Chilton on one number, and another founding member, producer/keyboardist Jim Dickinson, on a couple of tracks) match Falco's flat but enthusiastic crooning with sympathetic albeit unpolished aplomb. Lounge culture has received a big boost, mostly from kitsch devotees, but when you've been doing it with the steadfast panache that Tav Falco has shown, it's not something you put on and take off like a rented tuxedo. Falco sleeps in this suit.--Steven Stolder