CD: Jim White - Sounds of the Americans

When I saw Jim White perform at the Jazz Café a couple of weeks ago, he rather undersold his new album. But take no notice of the wilfully perverse Southern American singer-songwriter. Even if White appears to view this collection of songs for an adaptation of Sam Shepard’s play The Americans: Part 1: Lay of the Land as a bit of a side project, that doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of your attention. In fact, it might have actually benefited from not being over-worked in the way that a new album proper might have been.

Without the overriding concern for making something self-consciously cohesive, White allows each track to just obey its own rules, so that it feels like we’re glancing into the artist’s sketchbook to view ideas committed to paper at the moment of their conception. A case in point is the Jonathan Richman-like opener, “Speeding Motorcycle” (written by collaborator Daniel Johnston). But just as you settle into the idea of a collection of youthfully hedonistic, pseudo-naïve punk pop, up next is a subdued lounge-jazz instrumental. And so things continue, from quirky spoken-word monologues (the main clue of the provenance of this material) to something like “Suckerz Promises” - a light-hearted Tom Waits pastiche which has the old trooper’s Rain Dogs style, both musically and lyrically, down to a tee. I’d like to think Waits will take it in the celebratory spirit it was intended and not get all litigious on White’s ass.

But my favourite in this ragbag of tunes is “Keep it Meaningful You All” with its echoes of the Velvet’s similar seesawing nursery rhyme waltz “I’m Sticking With You”. In a more musically discerning parallel universe this unassuming gem would be a hit single. In conclusion, we knew White could do melancholic frozen-moment music, steeped in regret and ill-defined longing, like no other American songwriter, so it’s great to hear him less self-consciously saunter off down a few more brightly lit side streets, even if he never explores such areas again.

• Find Sounds of the Americans on Amazon

Watch the video for "If Jesus Drove a Motor Home"