Like
Matteah Baim's debut album,
Death of the Sun, its successor,
Laughing Boy, has somewhat eerie and folky songs suggesting subdued mystical states of mind, vocalized with the appropriate enigmatic serenity. This time around, it may be that the arrangements are a little more earthbound, though the instrumentation is still far more imaginative than it is on many of the records of the era that strike a similarly acid folkish mood. Nervously twittering violins, ominous rubbery thuds, monkish male backup chanting, searing grungy psychedelic guitar, light fishbowlish wah-wah, off-kilter hymnal choral singing, lonesome whistling, queasy guitar slides -- all find a place somewhere in
Baim's odd world. What she's trying to express lyrically is as hard to pin down as her musical style; you sometimes get the feeling she's as mystified by her lyrical images as listeners must be, such is her uncritically calm enunciation of these ethereal thoughts and feelings. Most of the songs are
Baim's, but one highlight is her adaptation of
Jim Morrison's "Bird of Prey" (originally heard on his American Prayer album), in which she's joined by several voices in a spooky, nearly a cappella rendition. ~ Richie Unterberger