*** Those Bastard Souls

DEBT AND DEPARTURE

(V2)

Guitar rock that isn't flashy or studiously lo-fi isn't exactly the flavor of the month, but it is exactly what Those Bastard Souls deliver on their major-label debut. Led by Dave Shouse, one of two singer-songwriter-guitarists in the Memphis band the Grifters, the Souls have mutated from a one-man home-recording project into an indie-rock supergroup of sorts. The current line-up features members of Chicago blues deconstructionists Red Red Meat, the late Jeff Buckley's band, Shudder To Think, and the Dambuilders. Tight and precise, the band don't so much tear into Shouse's moody songs as dissect them -- there are no wasted motions, no superfluous notes. Yet Debt and Departure is anything but bloodless -- from the immaculate piano bass notes on "Telegram" to ex-Dambuilder Joan Wasser's eerie riffing on "Remembering Sophie Rhodes," there's a controlled passion here. Shouse's melancholy means the album never exactly takes off, but, grounded, it's a power all the same.

-- Ben Auburn