Search - Jim White :: No Such Place

If Jim Carroll, Barry Gifford, and David Lynch all decided to put on a show called Lost Highway: The Musical, or if Lou Reed and Neil Young were to score Sling Blade II, they might come up with something that sounds like No Such Place. The sophomore album from twisted Florida crooner Jim White stylishly evokes the dark delights of both alt-country and good old junkie rock. "I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi / Where things is always better than they seem," sings White on the album opener, serving notice that his gallows humor is as arch as ever. But there's also a poignancy in songs such as "Corvair" (with it's rusted-out car metaphor and aching Harvest-era vocal) that demonstrates White's continuing growth as an artist. With trip-hop producers Morcheeba and Q-Burns Abstract Message giving the proceedings a modern gloss (along with assists from Sade keyboardist Andrew Hale and Yellow Magic Orchestra's Sohichiro Suzuki), these tales of gas station attendants, serial killers, and other troubled souls should help keep the Southern gothic tradition alive until White's next album. --Bill Forman