*** Asa Brebner

RAGGED RELIGION

(Asa Records)

Asa Brebner is, in no particular order, a savvy songwriter, a gifted roots-rock guitarist, and a first-class, grade-A cynic. On his first solo album (1996's Prayers of a Snowball in Hell), the former Jonathan Richman/Robin Lane sideman kept his darker streak in check and put his witty/romantic songs up front. On this one he basically says "to hell with it" and gets all the cranky, oddball numbers off his chest.

The title track's a catchy little tune about running one's family and one's finances into the ground; on "True Fine Mama" he comes on like a rock-and-roll casualty trying to write a message song, opining that all the homeless people on the street just need to get laid. On a more sensitive note, "Last Laugh" celebrates one of the perks of finding a new girlfriend: being able to flaunt it in front of the old girlfriend. All this venom is worked into tunes that could pass for commercial roots rock: the hooks and the twang are there, and Brebner's voice has taken on a latter-day Lou Reed quaver. The world-weariness gets out of hand only on the half-sung/half-spoken "Ruins"; elsewhere his characters have enough dogged determination to get them through. And he throws in one of his novelty songs, about a jolly family outing to "Indian Amusement Park" -- which, of course, shuts down before they show up.

-- Brett Milano