Lowlights

Raised in rural New Mexico, Dameon Lee?aka Lowlights?gravitated first towards power pop with Albuquerque combo Scared Of Chaka. In 1999, six albums later, he set about beating a more sepulchral trail of his own. Co-produced by Dustin (Rocketship) Reske, this painterly debut is a sad-slow delight. Nothing maudlin about it either. Lee’s voice has an autumn-leaf warmth, carried on swirls of organ noise, understated pedal-steel and shadowed by the faint harmonies of Angela Brown. On “Dim Stars” and “Travelogue” he sounds rather like a young Leonard Cohen stumbling into some roach-bitten outpost in a Sergio Leone flick.