Randy Weeks – Sugarfinger

Los Angeles troubadour Randy Weeks’ songs creep inside the strange and brutal wonder of relationships, clawing through the no-way-out mazes of joy, hurt, passion, jealousy, longing, indifference, revenge, premeditation and caveman instinct. The former Lonesome Stranger’s latest set of songs consists of mostly internal dialogues in the aftermath of some breakup, breakdown, or breakaway, creating his most complete beginning-to-end album yet.

Jamie Candiloro’s smooth production fits Weeks perfectly. Jerk-your-head-around lines jump out of tasty roots-rock played in a late-night motel-lounge lope. In Weeks’ domestic world, things always get tangled up; threats such as “I wanna show you my Winchester/And maybe you can tell me why/You had to tell me lies” emerge in a voice filled with contradictory sweetness and desperation.

The summertime lilt of “Transistor Radio” makes it the album’s natural radio selection, but Weeks absolutely magnetizes “I’d Rather Go Blind”, putting an urgent, brooding twist on the Ella Fitzgerald version. A salacious, lazy trombone seems to beckon sunrise on “Won’t Take Your Medicine” as the album winds down. Far be it for Weeks to break up a good dark mood.