Jay Bennett/Edward Burch: The Palace At 4am (Part 1) : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Up until his firing in 2001, gifted multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett was Wilco's musical monster, obsessive personality, workhorse and studio rat. His first post-Wilco effort was The Palace at 4 a.m. (Part 1), a collaboration with songwriter Edward Burch. But now Bennett is ready for his close-up. Eschewing much of Palace's pent-up pop orchestration, Bennett takes the role of cracked-voiced troubadour, with acoustic guitars providing much of the album's backbone. "Charming and Plastic" marries the Byrds with Elvis Costello, dense with wordplay and capped by a sunny pop chorus. "Cajun Angel" uses lyrics from the Woody Guthrie archive, and a melody that could sit comfortably on Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. Don't worry though -- he hasn't completely sworn off the mellotron. The studio trickery on "Cars Can't Escape" is so over-the-top with phasing and volume shifts you may get carsick. Bennett's weary baritone is the weakest instrument here, but his gift for melody is obvious, and worth returning for.

EVAN SCHLANSKY
(April 26, 2004)