Jay Farrar has been doing the same thing for close to 15 years now,
but there’s not much room for error. What is the risk of the
alt-country singer — prettiness forever? When you sing like
Farrar, whose voice one detractor memorably likened to an “electric can
opener on low-battery,” is there even that? So, judging by his
whirr-not-purr and some early lyrics (“May the wind take your troubles
away”), 2005’s regrouped Okemah and the Melody of Riot was a small miracle. Anti-Bush tunes and use of sitar didn’t make him
interesting, but his tune sense improved, especially rocking out on
“Who,” “Afterglow 61” and “Six String Belief.” The Search (from
2007) kept him afloat, if somewhat less memorably. That brings us to
American Central Dust — “dust” not as in “Cocaine and
Ashes” or “Dust of Daylight,” but dusting off the same weary croak,
gentle soft-to-loud dynamics and inoffensive chord changes. The yawning
“Cocaine” and by-the-numbers “Down to the Wire” still research
Springsteen’s unplugged territory without finding a thing, but at least
this one starts with a bang: The plaintively pretty “Dynamite” opens
the album staked on a lovely accordion melody. Wilco 3.0, try as they
might with their increasing trend toward “dad-rock,” will never be as
normal as this. — Dan Weiss
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2009.
