STEVE GUNN - Way Out Weather

We already loved his first set of vocal pop/rock tunes for Paradise Of Bachelors (last year's Time Off), but hadn't gotten around ('til right now) to mentioning this equally stealthily-subdued and subtle follow-up album, released last month and sure to make its way onto the lists of record-store staffers and music critics in the weeks ahead/as this year winds down.

"For years, Gunn never toured—for much of the ’00s, he jammed endlessly with pals and co-conspirators and studiously developed his guitar style, which is described reductively as folk but draws on a wide swath of music that includes blues, jazz, Indian classical, punk, and the Grateful Dead. He never wanted to be a traditional virtuoso who played wheedle-wheedle-whee-style solos. Rather, he’s a rhythmic player inclined to repetition and improvisation, more about appreciating forward motion than traveling to a specific destination.

Gunn also had to develop confidence as a vocalist—singing for people will always be more terrifying than playing guitar—though that initial tentativeness isn’t evident on Way Out Weather, his most straightforward and rock-oriented record. Gunn’s singing echoes his playing: It is relaxed and intimate, like a late-night conversation with a trusted confidant, and it gently draws you into the hypnotically beguiling songs." - Grantland