Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump

(V2)

Herald rating: * * * *

Review: Russell Baillie

Grandaddy are yet further proof that the some of the best rock records these days are the preserve of American oddballs from nowhere you've heard of.

In this case, that's Modesto, California, and the oddballs are Grandaddy, the worryingly hirsute outfit led by singer-songwriter and producer Jason Lytle. Having made quite a critical splash with their debut (passed me by, I'm afraid), Grandaddy established themselves alongside the likes of Mercury Rev (this album sits with the Rev's Deserter's Songs rather well) as practitioners of a new American psychedelia, a genre that's been a mix of lo-fi creativity and grand ambitions that's equal parts cosmic and rustic.

And so it is here too on The Sophtware Slump. With that title and song names like Hewlett's Daughter, Jed the Humanoid and Broken Appliance National Forest the "concept album" warning light does flash intermittently.

So, briefly, does the thought that this might be a dustbowl variation on the themes of a certain English band's much admired previous album - sorta Okey Dokey Computer.

Of course, the musical landscape's much different. Here there are elegant, dreamy songs propelled by guitars, piano, crackling and droning electronics and an occasional swathe of strings with a hint of country rock around the edges and in no particular hurry to finish. All of which Lytle sings in a Neil Young-ish forlorn quiver of a voice, whether it be on fuzz-toned, wide-horizon rockers like The Crystal Lake or the eerie balladry of Jed and Underneath the Weeping Willow.

By the time this reaches the string-laden finale, So You'll Aim Towards the Sky, The Sophtware Slump has transported you somewhere you've never heard of, quite wonderfully. And it's more than just a nice place to visit.