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Lo Fine - Nine

Recorded by Thom Monahan Mixed and mastered by Dan Richardson and Lo Fine

Reviewer -Jeff Breeze

Talk about slipping through the cracks. Lo Fine is the kind of band that falls off the table and you'd expect it was made of the same material as a Superball – it'd bounce right back in your hands. Somehow, when it should be flip-flopping all of its kinetic and potential energies, this disc slips into a crack that no one even knew existed. Incredibly endearing songs are sung to boarded up alleys and overgrown lots. Kevin O'Rourke is Lo Fine. He's augmented on these 10 songs by the cream of the Northampton music scene. Thane Thompson, Brian Marchese, Bruce Tull, Mark Schwaber, and Doug Beaumier all lend their services to Nine. Occupying the lo-fi side of the alt-country scene, it's the slow tunes like “Thanks for Asking” that put the focus squarely on O'Rourke while he's asking you “not to be so anxious, I'm kind of digging being lonely.” While his strumming and singing is at the fore in the mix, a droopy slide guitar pulls the song further down like gravity to a cheek's tears. Fans of Songs:Ohia or Supperbell Roundup will find a particular affinity for these tunes and O'Rourke's aesthetic: while he recorded with a band, he's flogged the road with just a guitar. When the songs sink to their weariest despair, Lo Fine switches the pace to remind you that days may fall in succession, but they don't need to follow one bad one after another. “Hiding and Screaming” shifts the tone out of the gloom into the melancholy of a drive for hours on tree-lined highways. There is too much great stuff going on throughout this disc to imagine that Lo Fine won't land an opening slot on a Wilco show and suddenly burst out into Ryan Adams territory. However, the likelihood is far greater that in the best of all possible scenarios, Lo Fine will share territory with the Pernice Brothers and Moviola. (Natural Disaster)

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