Nick Saloman, a/k/a The Bevis Frond, has been kicking around making sixties-influenced music since the actual sixties. So if his music sometimes strongly evokes that decade - extended guitar freakouts (hereafter EGF), the occasional trippy effect - he's less a throwback than he is a continuing exponent. On this album, his umpty-seventh in as many years, Saloman highlights his songcraft, a skill not often associated with the EGF school of the sixties. That songcraft, and the relative lack of EGFs, makes this CD more timeless than Saloman's reputation might suggest and far less indebted to his formative decade. While Saloman's nasal vocals might put off some, the quality of his songs and slightly weary yet not despairing lyrics make his vocal shortcomings worth overlooking. Highlights here include the moody, Hendrixian "To the Lighthouse," the snarling "Couldn't Care Less, and the catchy, ringing synth lines of "Almost Like Being Alive." The Frond runs the gamut from the heavy Cream of "Temple Falls" to the nearly Fairport-like delicacy of the sardonic "Bulldozer," whose portrait of grimy "progress" is perfectly matched by its scratchy mellotron backing. After working with a band for a while, Saloman here returns to his solo, home-recording roots, although his equipment has been upgraded from his earliest releases. But he's been doing this long enough, and is confident and skilled enough, that the songs avoid the cloistered, airless feel that plagues some single-person studio recordings.

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