Centro-matic
Love You Just the Same (2003)A testament to the lasting endurance of Centro-matic, the then-Denton quartet’s seventh studio album triumphs through ragged determination. Co-producer Anders Parker of Varnaline helps harness some of the band’s most memorable work, including “Flashes and Cables,” “The Mighty Midshipman,” and “Breathe Deep Not Loud.” It’s a riot of melody balancing the anthemic immediacy of Centro-matic’s earliest work (the Crazy Horse-branded “Picking Up Too Fast”) and the veiled depths of Johnson’s songwriting (“All the Lightning Rods,” “Without You”).
Will Johnson
Vultures Await (2004)Recorded in five days, Johnson’s second proper solo album offers an intensely intimate portrait of an artist unwilling to cut his losses, with evocative ballads on piano (“Just To Know What You’ve Been Dreaming”) and acoustic guitar (“Nothin’ but Godzilla”). Accompanying himself on drums and banjo, “Sleep a While” anticipates Band of Horses while “Your Bulldozer” could be mistaken for a demo from My Morning Jacket’s The Tennessee Fire. Elegies for the dying of the light.
South San Gabriel
The Carlton Chronicles: Not Until the Operation’s Through (2005)A loose concept album from the perspective of a terminally ill house cat, with a cast of characters that includes Ron the Sparrow and Kittyphone, The Carlton Chronicles achieves rare pop elegance with serious literary prowess. Themes of departure, aging, and atonement surface in soft focus, with SSG carefully painting around Johnson’s oblique lyricism. From the lamp-lit “Predatory King Today” to the guitar squall against Johnson’s wordless refrain in “Affection’s the Pay” and melancholic resolve of “Sicknessing,” the Operation’s a success.
This article appears in October 8 • 2010.