Rubber-stamped by New Order, Garlic’s 2002 debut The Murky World Of Seats brought comparisons with Neil Young and, crucially, Stephen Malkmus. This time, Pavement passions are (intermittently) dampened for a broader outlook, though comparisons with The Flaming Lips (“Never Gonna Let You Go”), Grandaddy (“One Thing Or Another”) and Lou Reed (“Philmore”) are unavoidable. Mostly backlit by hearty acoustic strum, frontman Mike Wyzgowski’s niftily-skewed songs are best when shorn of affectation, as on the softly defocused “A Weird Wood Soul” (spot the infamous UK nanny anagram) and charabanc-a-long “100 Miles”.
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