The Red Thread — After the Last (Badman Recording Co.)

It's no surprise that Badman has come through with another winner. In the past few years the San Francisco label has solidified itself as arguably the best fledgling company in the indie-record biz, thanks to a roster nicely balanced between established acts (Hayden, Mark Kozelek of the Red House Painters, The Posies) and talented up and comers (the mind bendingly great My Morning Jacket, British folkie James William Hindle).

The Red Thread's smoky pedal steel soaked debut, After the Last, is another great addition to the fold. Fronted by former Half Film singer/guitarist Jason Lakis, After the Last is a nine song collection perfect for late night ruminations and an album rich in the increasingly lost art of subtlety. The opener "Spread Thin" sets the template for the album nicely-- mid-tempo slow burning rock with dashes of country grit and a generous dolloping of melancholy.

Lakis is a great pedal steel player and the instrument is present on nearly every track, its mournful tones uniting all the compositions. Things do shake up a bit with poppier numbers like "Sailin' On," (a drastic re-working of the Bad Brains punk song) which exhibits some fiery lead guitar work. For the most part, however, After the Last is a subdued album crafted by obviously skilled musicians who don't feel the need to be showy about their technical abilities. Proof that riveting Americana is still being made even though Jeff Tweedy and Wilco are now busy pretending to be the Velvet Underground.

Rating: 8 out of 10

The Mountain Goats — Tallahassee (4AD)

You start to realize you're old when you review albums by a band and realize that you wrote about their previous release in the same publication two years ago (Oh where has the time gone?). Anyway, like 2001's Coroner's Gambit, Tallahassee is a word driven folk opus guaranteed to enrapture music listeners who wish singer/songwriters would put a little more creative writing spark into their work.

John Darnielle (a.k.a. The Mountain Goats) is a man with limited guitar skills and a pinched nasal singing voice, so maybe that's why he puts so much craft into his lyrics. Regardless of his motivations, Darnielle's work has paid off in the form of a rabid cult following that quickly scoops up his rapidly released collections of quirky homespun folk.

The rumor mill was predicting Tallahasee to be a major sonic breakthrough, reportedly forgoing Darnielle's usually strictly lo-fi recording aesthetic. Recorded at David Fridmann's famed Tarbox Studios with the instrumental and engineering assistance of Tony Doogan and Franklin Bruno, Tallahasee is still far from a studio-intensive record (although it is refreshingly devoid of the tape hiss so prevalent on other Mountain Goats records). Most of the songs still boast rudimentary arrangements, a single acoustic guitar complemented by sparse electric lead work or bass, and only the occasional odd duck steel drum fill reminding you there was a recording budget involved.

Although not a musical step forward, Darnielle still holds up his end of the bargain on the wordsmith front, weaving together a concept album about an alcoholic couple constantly on the verge of divorce with a poetically acidic and caustic wit. If you don't have time to read a great book, read this guy's liner notes.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Loose Fur — Loose Fur (Drag City)

Ah, the dreaded side-project vanity record-- always a tricky endeavor. Jeff Tweedy's increasingly experimental bent in Wilco's work is granted full birth here on an interestingly titled collaboration with Chicago avant music master Jim O'Rourke and new Wilco percussionist Glen Kotche. Weighing in at six songs and forty minutes, it's a leisurely paced record long on trance- inducing musical patterns of stately guitar and piano arrangements, but short on memorable melodies. At points the 'experimentation' feels pretty self-indulgent, particularly the skronky outro to "Laminated Cat," and the flat-out unbearable electric guitar mangling during the first half of the otherwise beautiful "So Long." When everything clicks, however, as it does on the bouncy banjo fueled "Elegant Transaction," it's clear that there was some magic in the room when these guys were working (and probably a couple bags of weed judging by the generally stoned vibe both singers bring to the table).

Lead vocal duties are split evenly between Tweedy and O'Rourke, with Tweedy's warm rasp nicely offsetting O'Rourke's icy tenor. It is not a masterpiece, but far from the disaster it could have been. By this point hopefully all Wilco fans recognize that Tweedy is no longer the man to turn to for straightforward, catchy pop songs (although the only sub-four minute number on the record, "You Were Wrong," is the closest he's come in awhile). On the whole, O'Rourke's compositions are the more melodic and streamlined. All in all a nice detour for Mr. Tweedy, but hopefully not the future direction of his larger musical work with Wilco.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Crooked Fingers — Red Devil Dawn (Merge Records)