Just finished test-driving all 10 new tracks from Josh Rouse and it's
moved to the top of my BUY list. Here's a review from emusic.com. (now,
if only they'd make .pdf's of the artwork and liner notes available).

Jeff T.
De.

(also completely unrelated and a month late to the game: thanks *Mike
Bennett* for the Outrageous Cherry review on fufkin last month. Bought
it solely on your recommendation and I love it!)


In the opening "It's the Nighttime," when Rouse tells an attractive
woman he's just met that he doesn't usually come on so strong, he makes
his case with such buoyant charm that she likely believes him. That's
how the man works: sophisticated yet simple, he enchants through an
open-hearted, direct approach that makes him sound like Conor Oberst's
less oblique older brother.

The Nebraska native names his fifth album after the city he recently
left when he moved to Spain last year. But aside from its steel-guitar
accents, it has nothing to do with the city's commercial country export
business. Instead, Rouse continues to perfect the lush, melodic chamber
pop he's been pursing since dropping the electronic touches of his first
two albums. If anything, Rouse and producer Brad Jones strip away the
pretenses of 2001's beautiful Under the Cold Stars and 2003's
concept-heavy 1972. He toys less with horns and other ephemera, instead
building songs on strummed acoustic guitar with steel counterpoints,
barely-there harmonies, subtle strings and easy yet insistent rhythms.
The pared-down settings focus attention on Rouse's majestic melodies,
his boyish tenor and the sly way he manages to make despair sound
necessary and, at times, even beautiful.

- Michael McCall