Disarmingly modest outing from former wunderkind
Kweller was making quality music before he could shave, and his third solo album—on which he plays every note—rolls along with a seemingly effortless grace. Most of these songs are built around simple piano chords or strummed acoustic, with easygoing, Beatlesque guitar, bass and occasional harmonies draping Kweller’s boy-next-door voice like a well-worn sweatshirt and blue jeans. Lilting rocker “Penny on the Train Track” ?nds the narrator choosing to anticipate not oncoming calamity but “something good, something great,” while the crunchy “I Don’t Know Why” evokes the young Lou Reed in his Loaded-era “normal” period. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a less tortured singer/songwriter than this guy.