Since he started making records in the early '90s,
Richard Davies
has made some great lo-fi music that joyfully splits the difference between whimsical psychedelia and scrappy indie rock.
Composition Book
finds him using
the Moles
' name again and shifting from the approach of the previous album,
Code Word
, which used a series of bands from around North America to create something more concentrated. Recorded at
Davies
' house on computer, the LP utilizes the skills of drummer
Malcolm Travis
, pedal steel player/vocalist
Sue Metro
, bassist
David Gould
, and vocalists
Caroline Schutz
and
Katherine Poindexter
. They eschew the full band sound of
for the most part, aiming instead for something very homemade, rough around the edges, and off-the-cuff. Some of the songs feel like first takes, with stray guitar bits, fun musical quotes, and rambling basslines popping in and out of the mix as
delves into a lyric book that's both observational and nostalgic. It's all great fun, and quite a few of the tracks deserve to be considered among his best. The lilting, midtempo rocker "Chimes" is reminiscent of
Moles
' tracks of the past, only with most of the orchestration stripped off; "One Day" is a lovely ballad with nice violin work, nifty acoustic guitar, and an affecting vocal; "Had to Be" is a warped indie pop gem that could have been on
Flying Nun
in 1987. Actually, it was, becasue this and "Tragedy" are very well done covers of songs from
the Bats
'
Daddy's Highway
album. Other highlights are the hooky drone rocker "Feel Like a Dollar," the rambling rockabilly-gone-to-seed lark "Rattlesnakes, Vampires, Horse Tribes and Rocket Science," and the overdriven "Lost Generation," where
taps into some deeply buried angst while the band makes a racket. Sometimes the ramshackle playing and recording give the sense that the album wasn't fully cooked, but those reservations are easy to brush aside when the songs are so heartfelt ("Since I Don't Know When") or hooky ("Alvin Hollis"). Even the songs that could have used a few more minutes in the oven, like the almost-too-clever "Blow Yer Mind," where
and band do imitations of some of the bands they love, are still worth hearing. Indeed, no matter what guise he's making music under,
is guaranteed to come up with something fans of left-field guitar pop need to check out, and
is no exception. ~ Tim Sendra