Barton Carroll, who's done side-man time with Crooked Fingers and Azure Ray,
assembled a fine band of his own for his second album. Carroll's
character-driven lyrics swing perilously between clichéd and original, but
mostly fall on the right side of the line: The opener, "Pretty Girl's Going To
Ruin My Life (Again)," finds him drinking scotch in the rain and concluding "it's
a fine way to spend the day." Though he's a bit too inclined toward five-minute
dirges, his band picks up the slack with taut folk arrangements. And "Brooklyn
Girl, You're Going To Be My Bride" is an early candidate for novelty song of
the year: Just as the title suggests, it's about a simple country man
fearlessly courting a girl "drowning in boys and hipster noise."