**** Oren Bloedow

THE LUCKIEST BOY IN THE WORLD

(Knitting Factory)

This whispery, world-weary collection of songs is an act of calculated savantry. Singer/guitarist Bloedow's bone-deep lyrics pine for lost days and loves in the simplest terms. Not only are his words plain and poignant, so are his vocal melodies. Bloedow's voice is thin, a tad whispery, and always just a sharp or a flat away from cracking, whether he's pining for his dead father and the unsatisfied promise of childhood or simply crying out for inspiration.

The arrangements thrust his singing way out front, matching his phrases with spare but savvy accompaniment. It takes a great band to distill a sound that teeters on the edge of collapse and to sustain it for an entire album, milking each song for every trace of fragility. And Bloedow, a former Lounge Lizard, has a line-up that's all aces. It includes his fellow ironic jazzers Medeski Martin and Wood and hipster downtown Manhattan slide-guitarist Dave Tronzo. Together they've worked hard to create an album that tugs at the heartstrings while smirking with delight in its own craftsmanship.

-- Ted Drozdowski