REVIEWSDavid Lowery, ‘The Palace Guards’

8

• SPIN Rating:8 of 10

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Release Date: February 1, 2011
Label: 429

Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker frontman David Lowery splits the difference between the former's loose eclectic twang and the latter's tight psych-country on his solo debut. Assisted by some Virginia studio pals, Lowery sticks it to celebrity on the acerbic title track and the cock-schlockin' "Baby, All Those Girls Meant Nothing to Me." He logs his own love story in the heady aquatic shimmer of "Deep Oblivion" and its sweetly redemptive sequel "Submarine." Sincerity trumps sarcasm, especially in his convincing cover of the Belgian band Mint's gloriously morose "Ah, You Left Me."