In every respect but one, Sid Griffin’s latest project is precisely what you’d expect from the expatriate roots-rocker: Byrdsy guitar twang, easygoing pedal steel, workmanlike melodies, poppy harmonies, and vocals that, to be generous, might short-circuit the moody Americana were it not for the evocative intelligence of much of the songwriting. Griffin’s past material has often felt wooden or stilted, smacking of poesy not poetry, diatribe rather than dynamism. On Western Electric he turns more reflective, more careful, even mysterious, whether writing of memory, childhood, or autumnal love.
The dream-chant “Emily In Ginger” should snap the current wave of Velvet Undergrounders from their lo-fi slumber, while “The Power Of Glory” takes aim at mammon-serving ministers through a smoky groove and late-night Christian radio sampling. Fellow Coal Porter Pat McGarvey shares vocals and songwriting duties, contributing to the strongest material. Odd, though, that Griffin’s co-write with Elliot Murphy, “Whirlwind”, is the album’s most impressionistic and interminable track. All the vintage soundscaping in Daniel Lanois’ wine cellar couldn’t save it.
Supported by beat-savvy percussionists Dave Morgan and Will Morrison, and with Bob Stone on keyboards and Neil Herd on steel, Western Electric may never feel like a band, though they do have atmosphere to burn (and one cool guitar part from Robyn Hitchcock). To Griffin’s production credit, the album makes little attempt at breaking the languor with uptempo pace shifts, though “Memory Captures Time” sounds like the best chime-rocker Velvet Crush never recorded. The ten songs instead spin slowly, meditatively, a copper and chrome gyroscope winding down but never quite stalling, remaining gently elliptical to the final song, a Byrds diamond-in-the-rough, “Straight From The Heart” (previously unrecorded; membership has its privileges), remaining magnetic all through its eerie, amorous echo.