Famously (and perhaps misleadingly given their seemingly smooth initial impression) referred to as "the most f***ed up band in Nashville", Lambchop flex their creative muscle in characteristically low-key style again on this latest album. I’ve been a patchy sort of fan myself. Breakthrough Nixon from 2000 remains a beacon of warped alt-countrypolitan-soul brilliance, but dipping in and out since then I had let things trail off after the double album combo Aw Cmon / No You Cmon four years later. There the over familiar template seemed to be stretching the quality too thin during an experiment where fulcrum of the ever changing Lambchop roster Kurt Wagner wrote and recorded a song a day for a month. Would this current release be a case of same old same old; which depending on your point of view may or may not be worth shelling out for?It’s a soothing understated (as expected) but interestingly engaging listen throughout. Enveloping consistent subtle service has been resumed as far as I am concerned. With Lambchop the Devil is in the detail, and the listener needs to spend time soaking up Wagner’s often twisted lyrics seeping out from the gentle musical facade ”“ especially when they serve up one of their lounge act musak tunes: still an acquired taste perhaps. Wagner’s delivery is more melodic spoken word than singing, and the distinctive phrasing can conceal lines full of enigma and irony, querky observational banality, and a disarming honesty. At times you might get that guilty feeling of skimming through someone’s secret diary.By second track ‘Slipped Dissolved and Loosed’, Lambchop’s delicate and precise musical approach is already beginning to work its subtle charms. They’re still a big band (a toned eight now down from twenty or so) but they have a light touch, like the gorgeously muted horn break featured on ‘Of Raymond’. Wagner has had a spell touring alone recently, and must have enjoyed the experience given that the new Lambchop-lite collective has been designed with a view to be easier to take on the road. There are moments when the tempo does rise, even if the words may remain downbeat. ‘National Talk Like A Pirate Day’ and the similarly niftily titled ‘Sharing a Gibson with Martin Luther King, Jr.’ both sparkle along pleasantly. The last two minutes of ‘Popeye’ sees Lambchop almost rocking out in a segment out of kilter with the previous four minutes of soulful reminiscence.Who else could write a ballad like ‘I'm Thinking of a Number (Between 1 and 2)’ containing the lines: “I want to say this / Say it so it won’t go away / Set like stains on my jacket / Gravy from Christmas Day /”¦ / Love is a variable thing / Like the shape of your ass that / I noticed when you walked away / From me”. Doing one thing with only slight variations might not be such a bad thing after all when you’re unique in what you do. And here Wagner is back to doing it very well indeed.78%Lambchop on MySpace Lambchop Official Site