Mp4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident

If Michael Penn sometimes can't seem to decide which of his musical talents (singer-songwriter, musician-arranger, perspective-minded producer) to focus on, it's a dilemma that's produced a compelling slice-of-résumé here. And though his pop sensibility is sometimes reminiscent of Matthew Sweet and other history-conscious peers, there's a reserve to Penn's productions that subtly underscores lyrics as sharp of tongue as they are of eye. Typically bleak, if playfully so ("I got loaded in a hearse when all I needed was a nurse," he observes on "Lucky One"), the singer can't help but lay the truth on you even while he's busy concocting just the right musical cocktail to help wash it down. This is Penn's sometimes bleak world-view, be it personal or objective, set to dry productions that can still somehow recall Spector one instant, mournful Delta blues the next, crucially without being slave to either. Cheer up, Penn seems to be advising here, the news may be bad, but the music doesn't have to be. -Jerry McCulley