Their first full-length recording,
Winfred E. Eye produce an entertaining, if not entirely innovative, 35 minutes of fractured quasi-Americana. Largely aping
Tom Waits and
Vic Chesnutt, the former in his haunted sage persona and the latter in his cryptic loner guise, the California six piece employ a somewhat tired shtick, but generally do it very well. As a set of songs that are saturated in the disillusionment following the realization of being unlovable and alone, the arrangements aren't long on melody or sentimentality, instead focusing on slow, loping progressions built on languidly delivered laconic verse. A little like
Lambchop without the gloss, the band uses a few funeral blues grooves to break up the pace, but generally resides in the realm of languorously unfolding ruminations on the minutiae of displacement and despair. Vocalist/guitarist Aaron Calvert proves himself a fine narrator on this despondent journey, although he seems to rely a little too much on giving his vocals the right shade of boozy troubadour slurring to create the proper context. All in all, a consistently engaging debut. ~ Matt Fink