Grant-Lee Phillips

Strangelet

(Zoë)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

Gentle folk-rocker Grant-Lee Phillips (best known either as the former frontman of Grant Lee Buffalo or the town troubadour in Gilmore Girls) returns to original material on Strangelet after taking a worthwhile detour with last year’s nineteeneighties—which paid tribute to ‘80s icons like New Order and The Cure with thoughtful, stripped-down covers.  Strangelet takes a similarly mellow path, and maintains Phillips’ reputation—like Joseph Arthur or John Doe—as a consistent pleaser for the Triple-A crowd.

Phillips is capably backed throughout by R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and L.A.’s Section Quartet on strings.  Strangelet also benefits from smart sequencing, as foot-tapping soft-rockers like “Hidden Hand” and “Raise the Spirit” are peppered in whenever the mood threatens to go mushy.  “Runaway” and “So Much”—the opener and closer—go electric and inject some urgency, while “Return to Love” retreats to a gentle hush, boosted by understated instrumentation and Phillips’ expressive vocal.  Breathy single “Soft Asylum (No Way Out”), oddly, stands out as a weak link; its jangly, Edge-lite guitar is repetitious to the point of frustration.