A very Abel songsmith's second outing,

Steve Abel & The Chrysalids
FLAX HAPPY
Verdict: Second moody wonder of an album from local outsider
Rating: * * * * (4 stars)

Of the albums to have swamped us in the recent avalanche of local stuff set off by New Zealand Music Month, this one feels like a rarity – one that will still be revealing itself for many months to come. It's also one that doesn't fit any format. Unless, that is, there's a category for ``brooding folk-rock singer-songwriters backed by Kiwi supergroup and Texan alt country star''.

This is Aucklander Abel's second album after 2006's quiet wonder of a debut Little Death. Like that one, this features a band of notable backers – his Chrysalids are two fifths of Pluto, a Goldenhorseman and a former Goodshirter in there too, all showing a sympathetic ear for Abel's acoustic-framed, heavy-hearted but understated songs.

Flax Happy feels a more expansive affair than its predecessor. And while Little Death suggested Abel was our answer to that ever-mournful American gothic guy Will Oldham, much of this feels closer to Beck's pensive album SeaChange, especially on the lovely lilting likes of Sad Girls.

Still, it does its own line in rustic melancholy, most markedly on the sparse Cinders of the Sun and the grim Heart of Misery, both the fruits of Abel's recording with Texas warbler Jolie Holland when she toured here. Both of those bittersweet duets are neatly offset by a scraping of dustbowl fiddle.

But if this is sometimes heading towards tumbleweed country, it's also pulling for home on tracks like the haunting and bilingual duet with Anika Moa, Ka Pinea Koe.
While one or two songs feel like outlines left underdeveloped, the bulk of the 13 are captivating, for Abel's brooding melodies and emotional punch, especially when the slow-fused songs like the closing Frail finally find the powderkeg.

http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/music-reviews/2008/7/5/steve-abel-and-c...
Saturday July 5, 2008