Music: Resistor

It's been a dark and stormy summer here at Shangrila Towers, and Lera Lynn's latest album, "Resistor," makes for an appropriate soundtrack. "Resistor" is, in part, a defiant indie statement (Lynn and longtime producer Josh Grange recorded it in the shadow of Music Row, a literal Big Machine), but it's mostly full of the kind of atmospheric singer-songwriter tracks you just don't find on mainstream radio these days. You can practically smell the faded cigarettes and cheap beer when you listen to the single "Drive":



Things get a bit more muddled in some of the album's later tracks - they're lush and well-crafted, to be sure, but sometimes the songs get so melancholy they border on self-parody. On the whole, though, "Resistor" is one of my favorite releases of the year, and well worth a listen - best enjoyed while cruising in a muscle car on a dark backcountry highway...