SPIN

7

• SPIN Rating:7 of 10

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    Spotify

Release Date: September 28, 2010
Label: Nonesuch

Sarah Palin's daughter's baby daddy must be friggin' stoked, bro: On "Levi Johnston Blues," Lonely Avenue's two knights of music nerd-dom use their disarming pop smarts to wryly sympathize with the hapless Playgirl cover boy. The empathy and humor run throughout: With Folds as his tuneful voice, Hornby describes a prim suburbanite's tolerance of his porn-watching metalhead neighbor ("Your Dogs"); laments a singer forced to reprise his only hit about an ex ("Belinda"); and feels for a wheelchair-bound, Brill Building-era songwriter ("Doc Pomus"). It's okay, man. It's okay.