Spoon

Girls Can Tell

merge

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What doesn't kill Spoon makes it stronger. After seven years, an indeterminate number of bassists, and as much luck with the record biz as the Democrats had with Florida, the Austin combo hits the high-water mark with this tense, graceful, spike-pop jewel. Spoon already enjoys an in-the-know following, but Girls Can Tell should take the band to another level of acclaim from critics, college radio, and overseas scenesters—à la El Paso's At the Drive-In and Austin's . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. This is music any rock and roll fan can love, 36 minutes of punky minimalism and breathy melody, brought together with haunted Mellotron, giddy surf's-up guitar, and sinewy hooks that snarl and repeat around Jim Eno's toe-tapping drum work. Britt Daniel's lyrics bare romantic wounds and reveal a documentarian's eye; his gruffly gorgeous vocals go from raw to beauteous to just plain exasperated. Less angular and more emotional than the band's previous work, Girls Can Tell is moody enough for soft-light listens at four in the morning but catchy enough for deafening car-stereo sessions. "If I told you the best band in the state of Texas had neither a) bad afros or b) an improbably long name, would you believe it?" indie tastemaker Gerard Cosloy asks in the band's official biography. The backhanded comparison may be gratuitous, but the value judgment isn't.

Double Trouble

Been a Long Time

tone-cool

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As Double Trouble, bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton have been everything a classic rhythm section should be: tasteful, selfless, and steady. It's been enough to not only inspire countless Stevie Ray Vaughanabees but also warrant their own album and more than a dozen high-profile admirers to play on it. But the real surprise is that Been a Long Time is neither fully star-driven nor guitar-oriented. Instead the emphasis is on the songs—half of which the duo had a hand in writing—from "Turn Toward the Mirror," Double Trouble's reunion with the Arc Angels' Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton, to "Baby, There's No One Like You," a remarkably commanding ballad featuring Dr. John's vocals and an instantly recognizable Willie Nelson guitar solo. Even material performed by relative newcomers Susan Tedeschi, Jonny Lang, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd is just as sharp and expansive, and traditional Texas blues fans will relish Jimmie Vaughan and Lou Ann Barton's duet on Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "In the Middle of the Night." Although the unlisted 36-second snippet of previously unreleased S.R.V. that closes the album might serve as a nice reminder of the tie that binds so many of the guests, it's an unnecessary throwback. As the producers, song-writers, and bandleaders behind a blues album this cohesive, Double Trouble shouldn't be looking anywhere but straight ahead.

Leslie Satcher

Love Letters

warner bros.

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This Paris native's debut album hopes to have it both ways, and it sometimes succeeds. Like most Nashville-based singers, her voice is largely twang-free, suited for pop as much as country, but it's undeniably intimate. Producer Luke Wooten provides a typically radio-friendly, drum-heavy sound that would also be the Music City norm if it didn't leave so much space for fiddle, steel guitar, and Dobro. On "A Man With Eighteen Wheels," she's unabashedly country enough to revive, with a saucy whoop of anticipation, that long-lost genre of the truck-driving song. Her remake of "Ode to Billie Joe," the only song she didn't have a hand in writing, broadens the unrelentingly stoic sorrow of the original by bouncing around between anguish, anger, incredulity, and fear. And the hidden bonus track, "White," is as un-Nashville as contemporary country gets, confronting the subject of racial hatred using only horse-hooves-and-thunder sound effects and her a cappella vocals. Though Satcher is occasionally guilty of trite lyrics or oversinging, her career is off to a promising start.

Jeb Loy Nichols

Just What Time It Is

ryko/rough trade

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Right away, the tone is set. "Come on over to my yard, sit around and let your troubles all disappear," beckons Jeb Loy Nichols on the lead track of his new CD. His songs never break a sweat, and their comforts are as inviting as an empty hammock on a lazy day. Nichols filled up his bag of tricks in London, where pop musicians routinely mimic soul and reggae styles. Yet Nichols isn't British; he's a nomad from Wyoming who was a student at Austin's Westlake High School. And he's not mimicking. His music roils smatterings of soul, hip-hop, reggae, and country into a light, distinct mixture. Part of the credit goes to his producers, who make smart choices. Though the lyrics get sugary, there is only one outright dud (the Firestone disco retread "Trying to Get Over"). Nichols' voice, so rich that it sounds as though he's singing a chord, rescues most everything; he purrs his way through the album like it's Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (it isn't). Maybe Nichols wouldn't get away with singing a road atlas, but he's undoubtedly a guy who knows his way around.

Will Sexton

Scenes From Nowhere

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Ever since I first saw them perform together at the ages of six and eight, Will Sexton has operated in the shadow of his older, more famous brother, Charlie. That's a shame, considering that Will's music has historically stayed closer to their roots; when Charlie was a sixteen-year-old Hollywood teen sensation affecting a British accent, Will was still sitting in with bands around Austin, screaming Little Richard songs. Scenes From Nowhere is hardly rootsy, but it does manage to shine more light on Will than any of his previous work has. It reveals a moody, pensive singer-songwriter cut from the same cloth as Tom Petty or Kurt Cobain who casts a few obligatory nods; "Happiness—I Can't Fall," for example, pays tribute to Nick Drake, dead more than twenty years but whose work is enjoying something of a revival among modern rock composers. "Last Faithful Lover" and "Wondering—LA the Whorehouse by the Sea" even sport a few semi-poppy hooks. Still, taken as a whole, Scenes suggests an unfinished work by a promising young artist still figuring out where he wants to go. The shadow, though, has definitely passed.