M. Ward – Transistor Radio

Portland singer-songwriter M. Ward stresses that Transistor Radio was intended for vinyl, but for practical purposes was released on CD. Regardless of the format, the music is blatantly separated into two parts: sixteen songs, eight to a side.

Side As instrumental opener You Still Believe In Me features Wards light-fingered plucking backed by an echo. The following track, One Life Away (a duet with My Morning Jackets Jim James), is a catchy old-time number fed into a 4-track for a scratchy-78 effect. Regeneration No. 1 suggests theme music for an acid-fueled romp through the Southwest, while Big Boat sounds like what might have happened if the Beatles had written Cripple Creek Ferry.

Side B is a meditative set of two-and-a-half minute strummers. Given a slick makeover by Norah Jones or Linda Rondstadt, Here Comes The Sun Again and Ill Be Yr Bird could hold their own on the charts. As they are here, theyre delicate country-folk songs, some of the best released so far this year.

Wards records have a cut-and-paste quality but are as musically diverse as, say, Calexico. His music is very much of-the-moment, yet sounds completely out of step with time.