It makes sense that golden-throated alt-crooner
Grant Lee Phillips should join the ranks of fellow enigmatic 20th century underground rock icons like
Robyn Hitchcock,
Nick Lowe, and
John Doe at Yep Roc. Though he may have traded the brooding Americana of his
Grant Lee Buffalo trio for the safer shores of adult alternative pop/rock since disbanding in the mid-'90s, his output has been no less worthy of praise. On his fifth outing,
Phillips draws the bulk of his material out of the positive vibes of new fatherhood. Tunes like "Good Morning Happiness" and "Violet" virtually skip on by in their optimism, yet
Phillips never lets things get too saccharine, preferring earnestness over frivolity. Peppered throughout are snapshots of his career to date (the sleepy "Nightbirds" and serpentine title track hark back to
GLB Copperopolis days and the vaudevillian swagger of "The Sun Shines on Jupiter" echoes
Jubilee), but never are they exercises in revisionism. Whether it's the Dixieland horns that bookend "It Ain't the Same Old Cold War Harry" or the achingly beautiful string section that runs through "Blind Tom" like the Mississippi in summer, it's all signature
Grant Lee Phillips, and he can still jump from a baritone to a tenor like a spring hare. ~ James Christopher Monger