Awarded 
out of
Like Elvis Costello under the
spell of the American Music Club's
Everclear, Slow Cheetah paint sparse but satisfying pop,
equally ripe with smart vocal hooks and lonesome desert
atmospheres. Side project of Spoon drummer Jim Eno and LA
singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Brad Shenfeld, Slow Cheetah's
debut is an album-full of warm and slowly addicting, mid-tempo
Americana. Like his Spoon work, Eno's kit work is loose and lazy
and Shenfeld's chameleon hush alternates from drawling rocker
to boozed balladeer.
Shenfeld's lyrical ambiguity--words
seem like an afterthought
throughout much of the record--stops some songs short of
greatness, but others are salvaged by deceptively simple
arrangements and a wealth of studio tinkering--samples,
buried fuzz vox, hints of organ and piano. The horns and subtle
keyboard swells of "Sausalito Queen," or gentle "aaahhs"
warming
the chorus of "Sugardoll," emerge from rewarding listens
made
all the easier by the informal, guys-in-the-living room production.
Shenfeld might be the buried treasure California Amerindieans
have
been waiting for--he just needs to spend as much time making words
as he does moods. Still, Papa Joe's is a fine way of introducing
himself.
-Greg Heller
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