Scott Adair

Liquidation (Bunkhaus)

The majority of the songs on Scott Adair’s debut, Liquidation, were written, but never released, almost a decade ago for the band the Royal Towers, and most of them have aged well. The claustrophobic breakdown in “Everything Is Fixed” accents the song’s bleak subject matter, as do the country-fried guitar and percussive thump of “Daytrading Drifter.” Adair’s croaky vocals channel Kurt Cobain and Gram Parsons throughout, occasionally sounding like lost demos thanks to the haunting lo-fi bedroom atmosphere, while covers of Johnny Cash’s “Let the Train Blow the Whistle” and Bob Dylan’s “To Ramona,” both aided by Jacob Schulze’s pedal steel, fit nicely into the mix. At times, Adair slips too easily into the past, sounding like a night spent drinking with high school friends. His teen angst and melodrama in “Trash” and “Loose Lips and Spiked Hair” stand in stark contrast to the more mellow and folkie instrumentation. Time to move on.

**

This article appears in July 6 • 2007.

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