After a four-year gap since their second album,
Freakwater returned with another solid effort that's not as bare-bones as their debut, but a little earthier than
Dancing Under Water. Not a lot of new ground is broken, yet
Old Paint somehow doesn't sound at all tiresome. All of their strengths remain in place: fine, mournful harmonies, good original songs, some well-chosen covers (
Loudon Wainwright's "Out of This World" is a particular highlight), and nice unobtrusive touches of pedal steel and fiddle embellishing the acoustic guitars. This is modern country-folk at its best, and in fact would really be more suitable for the roots-country audience, except that the execution is too direct, the production too basic, and the songwriting's too heartfelt for the contemporary country marketplace. Thus it is that the group's primary listenership is the alternative rock community, which is country's loss: few performers today are performing roots music so convincingly, without sounding forced or dated.