Throughout his 20-year career, Jim White has managed to come off eclectic and eccentric, but he's never sounded as impassioned and moody as he does on Waffles, Triangles & Jesus. Five years after his last album, the durable Where It Hits You, White seems older, wiser, grittier and full of emotion.
Joined by Cindy Wasserman and Frank Drennen (aka Dead Rock West), the 11 tracks that make up LP number seven beam with cascading instrumentation and stickily melodies, as the three musicians give distinct personalities to tracks like the buoyant, jaunty "Silver Threads" and the Eastern-sounding, flute-assisted "Prisoner's Dilemma."
But it's songs like the menacing buildup of "Drift Away," the Celtic march of "Long Long Day" and downright wackiness of the Wasserman duet "Earnest T. Bass at Last Finds the Woman of His Dreams" that shows off the true scope of White's songwriting abilities, as he achieves more with his delivery, patience and execution than he can with any sort of instrumental obsessiveness.
Near the end of Waffles, Triangles & Jesus White sings on "Wash Away a World" that he "Wish(es) it would storm enough to wash away this world" and fortunately (or unfortunately) due to White's newfound level of raw emotion, you believe he really means it.
(Loose)Joined by Cindy Wasserman and Frank Drennen (aka Dead Rock West), the 11 tracks that make up LP number seven beam with cascading instrumentation and stickily melodies, as the three musicians give distinct personalities to tracks like the buoyant, jaunty "Silver Threads" and the Eastern-sounding, flute-assisted "Prisoner's Dilemma."
But it's songs like the menacing buildup of "Drift Away," the Celtic march of "Long Long Day" and downright wackiness of the Wasserman duet "Earnest T. Bass at Last Finds the Woman of His Dreams" that shows off the true scope of White's songwriting abilities, as he achieves more with his delivery, patience and execution than he can with any sort of instrumental obsessiveness.
Near the end of Waffles, Triangles & Jesus White sings on "Wash Away a World" that he "Wish(es) it would storm enough to wash away this world" and fortunately (or unfortunately) due to White's newfound level of raw emotion, you believe he really means it.