"Stay a little longer this time/Stay a little lonely this time," sings guitarist David Freel in "Forget About Jesus," his delivery dry and yet as poetic as his lyrics. While never predictably "experimental," Swell are riveting in their refusal of all ingratiating pop conventions. Filled with mise en scène sounds (footsteps, ringing phones), 41 resembles an aural black-and-white movie of San Francisco's hard-luck Tenderloin district. Bassist Monte Vallier and drummer Sean Kirkpatrick join Freel on these lean life studies, fashioning an ambient folk music capable of sparking disturbing epiphanies. (RS 686/687)

PAUL EVANS