West of Rome in Bloomington, MN

A huge musical step forward from the skeletal
Little
,
Vic Chesnutt
's second album finds the mercurial
singer/songwriter
in the sympathetic company of other musicians, who add new and interesting musical ideas and instrumental textures to
Chesnutt
's unique style. Again produced by
Michael Stipe
, the album was recorded with the core trio of
on guitar (including, for the first time, electric), wife
Tina Chesnutt
on bass, and
Jeffrey Richards
(later of
Neutral Milk Hotel
and
Hazeldine
) on drums, with others adding cello, violin, keyboards, and other instruments as necessary. Compared to the solo acoustic
, it's like
Pet Sounds
, but the added instruments never detract from
's stark, quirky, and emotionally bare lyrics. Most importantly,
had improved immensely as a singer in the nearly three years since
had been recorded. His vocals on songs like
"Bug"
and the lovely, string-enhanced
"Soggy Tongues"
are deliberately askew, with accents in unexpected places and odd, fractured rhythms, but this time, it's clear that
actually means to sound this way, and on more musically straightforward songs like the lyrically opaque
"Lucinda Williams,"
's vocals are stronger and more self-assured than on the occasionally wayward
. Out of print for years after
Texas Hotel
closed,
West of Rome
was reissued in 2004 on the
New West
label, in a slightly altered form: the heavy rocking, slide guitar-enhanced
"Latent/Blatant,"
which had opened the original CD over
Stipe
's protests, is reduced to a bonus track, along with other outtakes, demos, and a pair of solo live recordings, all of which reveal what a musically fruitful period the early '90s were for
. ~ Stewart Mason