Damien Jurado – Ghost Of David

As a sort of unlocked diary, Ghost Of David can be fascinating stuff, a real-time look inside Damien Jurado’s world (his head, primarily). Like that great conversation you might have with a friend, it opens up new vistas and insights even as the darkness pours out your mouths. However, while therapeutic, you’d rather not have to relive it immediately if you can possibly stand it.

Jurado’s aims with his minimalist acoustic banging are simple: See a grain of sand in the world, write about it, approximate the mood, and move on. However, there are millions of grains of sand in the world, and they’re not always that mesmerizing. Jurado’s ability to see himself in all of them is arguably his biggest asset, and, conversely, his fatal flaw.

Jurado is joined by Pedro The Lion’s David Bazan, who serves to liven up Jurado’s small world just a bit with some nice Waitsian bone-music touches. “Tonight I Will Retire”, a piano-driven number (though just barely) and “Rosewood Casket” come the closest to having any sort of Nashville lineage, though it’s mostly in terms of the songs’ aw-shucks fatalism. “Ghost In The Snow” and “Paxil” see Jurado at his best, music and meaning waltzing with each other in a death march that is fascinating to behold.

Ghost Of David may be single-minded, but it’s not simple-minded. Jurado’s much too talented for that. Whether or not you want to listen may be a different story altogether. Damien Jurado might not be for everybody, but he’s damn sure for himself.