*** Sue Garner

TO RUN MORE SMOOTHLY

(Thrill Jockey)

Sue Garner is best known these days for playing bass and singing in Run On, but she's also been in projects more thoroughly devoted to weirdness (Fish and Roses, the Biggest Square Thing) and to sweetness (the gloriously gentle Shams). Her first solo album is much less rock than Run On; it's governed by her predilection for pretty sounds. But its roots are in her avantist impulses, which mostly show up in the arrangements (featuring Chris Stamey and members of Run On and Yo La Tengo) that perpetually find new routes around the conventions of guitar-bass-drums. Some are pretty in odd ways (like a cover of Merle Haggard's "Silver Wings," supported by super-distorted bass and sliding violin parts); a few are overtly discordant.

The warm Southern lilt in Garner's voice, though, makes everything glide gracefully, even when she hides her singing in the mix or treats it as accompaniment rather than the focus of a track. Her own songs are a solid framework for this thoughtful soundplay too. The disc ends with a remake of the Shams' "Continuous Play," whose sentimental honesty represents some of her best writing, emotionally complex and pure as sunlight.

-- Douglas Wolk