New Great Lakes

Personnel: Paul Hiraga.
New Great Lakes is the fourth full-length Downpilot release, and it finds singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Paul Hiraga -- who had previously allowed the occasional outside musician into his musical fortress of solitude -- taking the recording reins largely into his own hands. That doesn't make him some sort of Todd Rundgren/Stevie Wonder studio virtuoso -- these tracks are sparsely arranged, mostly based around straightforward guitar and keyboard accompaniment -- but it's a fully fleshed-out concept nonetheless, and Hiraga keeps a steady hand on the mood meter, which rides a consistently balanced line between melancholy and stoicism. The guy knows how to put a melody together, a fact that's made most obvious on the album closer, "Rosebud of the Plain," where his gracefully arcing vocal line is offset only by acoustic guitar fingerpicking and subtle organ swells. And before you even hone in on his lyrics, the underlying sadness in his voice lets you know there's some discontent swirling underneath the album's deceptively calm waters, but the Midwest-bred Hiraga isn't the type to wallow in misery, or drag onlookers down into it. Instead, he seems to take a clear-eyed look at his inner life, as if from a distance, with the warmth of an extremely organic-sounding album serving to bridge the gap in between the sentiments and their source. ~ J. Allen