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POP
CD OF THE WEEK
Jay sired the alt-country movement with Uncle Tupelo. Since the band's demise, his former partner, Jeff Tweedy, has fluttered from rock pastiche to off-the-peg post-rock in Wilco, while Uncle Tupelo's inheritor, Ryan Adams, mixes up a baby-food version of Americana so delicious, even Elton John enjoys it. Farrar, by contrast, is incapable of being anything other than himself: darkly introspective, uncommunicative to the point of insolence. Yet his apparent obtuseness masks a determined drive towards purity. Farrar's second solo album slashes the dense country-rock of Uncle Tupelo and his subsequent band, Son Volt, to dinosaur bones of perfectly interlocking chord progressions, rainbow steel-guitar shapes, snatches of indistinct instrumentals and wood-smoked vocals. It eschews the pop production concessions of 2001's Sebastopol for an as-live ambience that enhances the music's otherworldliness. "Cahokian" is Farrar at his finest: cello and acoustic guitar underscore a description of the Native American monuments of Missouri and their poetic relationship with the present. But Terroir Blues still feels beautifully unfinished, as if Farrar is holding back, afraid of his potential. Also available is the soundtrack to the film The Slaughter Rule (Bloodshot), with songs by Neko Case, Vic Chenutt and Uncle Tupelo alongside Farrar's abstract soundscapes. SL |
