Paul Duncan - Be Careful What You Call Home

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Gorgeous self-produced/recorded debut tarnished by painfully familiar track

With its delicate, ambient country/folk, subtle electronic flourishes and hypnotic vocals, fans of Smog, Nick Drake and Iron & Wine will love this hushed, tastefully produced record. Multi-instrumentalist Duncan is a superb songwriter and shows huge potential here, but the album’s second cut, “Tired and Beholden,” stopped me dead in my tracks. It’s an almost rote replication of wistful Black Crowes road song “Wiser Time.” The similarities are uncanny—from the snaky, hitching drumbeat to the acoustic-guitar riff and dreamy pedal steel. In fact, everything but the lyrics and melody sounds copped. Duncan swears he’d never heard the song, and I believe him. Still, he should either pull the track from future pressings or credit the brothers Robinson.