Where It Hits You Loose***

At the best of times, Jim White's music is never far from the land of vulnerability and anxiety. But when his wife left him "for a younger man" during the recording of this, his fifth studio album, it didn't bode well for this singular American talent. "On the best of days still there's hell to pay," White whispers on Epilogue to a Marriage,but though there are many references – Chase the Dark Away, That Wintered Blue Skyand The Way of Alonemost obviously – and an undercurrent of overwhelming sadness, this is an album about survival. It is also typical of White's idiosyncratic approach to music-making: the folksy backdrops swap with turbulent funk and more shadowy settings to play host to his left-field ruminations. White's trademark offbeat humour, not surprisingly, is in short supply, but he manages a sardonic grin when he signs off with the ironic Why It's Cool. See jimwhite.net

Download tracks: Chase the Dark Away, The Way of Alone