CD Reviews

Grant Lee Phillips

Nineteeneighties | Rounder

By SUE BELL | August 8, 2006

4.0 Stars

Bordered by twilight and tangled-branch silhouettes, former Grant Lee Buffalo singer-songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips captures the imagery, as well as the heart, of an era’s underground on this aptly titled collection of covers, creating a low-key, atmospheric setting for songs by the Pixies, R.E.M, Joy Division, and others. Ringing acoustic guitars bring an organic sensibility to New Order’s “Age of Consent”; slide guitar and South Pacific stylings offset the somewhat morbid lyrics of the Pixies’ “Wave of Mutilation.” A mid-tempo romp through “Boys Don’t Cry” is fit with charming toy piano. And as Phillips sings the Smiths’ “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me” over softly textured organs and plucked mandolin, the doe-eyed “No hope, no harm — just another false alarm” takes on a refreshing, humble conviction.