*** Smog

KNOCK KNOCK

(Drag City)

There's exactly one joke on Smog's new Knock Knock -- a choir of Chicago youngsters contributes backing vocals to two songs, making Bill Callahan sound a little like rapper Jay-Z. Beyond that, Callahan seems to have checked his deadpan sense of humor at the studio door. Like much of his recent Smog output, Knock Knock cautiously entertains the possibility of contentment, in lines like "For the first time, I left myself be held/Just like a big old baby . . . I let the jets fly, not wishing for their destruction." But before long, that sense of peace becomes a bad joke, one more thing dangling just out of reach. The devastated "I Could Drive Forever" undercuts the open-road optimism of "Hit The Ground Running" -- fleeing his mistakes, Callahan realizes he can't ditch himself without coming apart.

Knock Knock is Callahan's second collaboration with arranger Jim O'Rourke, who surrounds him with funereal chimes and buzzes even when the tempos get uncharacteristically brisk. Callahan may have ditched the lo-fi production values he used to wear like a hair shirt, but he sounds just as oppressed in O'Rourke's sparse soundscape, like the traumatized ghost of Jonathan Richman. Anyway, he could work with O'Rourke, or Babyface, or the USC Marching Band, and ultimately he'd still be alone in that old pollution, making up heartbreaking tunes like "Teenage Spaceship," where the melody jells only during the fade-out, like a rescue team showing up too late. No matter what, it's still a hard-knock life.

-- Alex Pappademas