The product of a five-year gestation cycle that included a near-death experience for its creator and the tragic suicide of its patron,
Elliott Smith,
Andrew Morgan's
Misadventures in Radiology arrives swaddled in the kind of drama and mythology typically reserved for artists at the peaks of their careers, not their outset -- fittingly, this lush, nuanced record boasts a maturity and grace far beyond
Morgan's years, evoking in exquisitely fine strokes masterpieces spanning from "Odessey and Oracle" to "Ocean Rain." Comparisons to
Smith are also inevitable, but while its widescreen scope and orchestral grandeur recall the late singer/songwriter's albums for DreamWorks,
Misadventures in Radiology is more celebratory than melancholy -- few records actually exalt in the sheer joy of making music, but even
Morgan's darkest and most deeply intimate songs revel in the power of emotional release. ~ Jason Ankeny