After spending years building a career on beautifully melancholic guitar-based compositions and lush, murmuring indie rock, something shifted for . His slow-moving rock band gave way to similarly majestic sounds with , but in the first part of the 2010s, began using songs as wordy spoken-sung meditations on loss, memory, and the cycle of life. The floodgates opened from there, and began a prolific string of albums in this style, under the banner of both and his own name, as well as in collaboration with other artists. is an interesting chapter in this ongoing saga, one that finds meeting minds with gifted harmonist and multi-instrumentalist . On the surface, the seven songs here are mostly more of 's real-time rambles about memories from growing up or anecdotes from his everyday life. His mother taking him to his first concert ( ), early experiences with childhood friends, playing guitar in echoey hotel rooms, and even a lengthy, detailed synopsis of the movie Full Metal Jacket are all lyrical tangents in these songs, some of which reach nearly 20-minute running times. 's contributions are limited to layers of overdubbed vocal harmonies and counterpoint, and however auxiliary, they complement 's slow-burning songwriting perfectly. The gentle acoustic guitars of "Rest in Peace R Lee Ermey" blend with 's patient melodies so nicely that 's lyrical spew just clutters the spare prettiness of the song. Without 's layers of cooing, wordless vocals, the meandering faux funk of "1983 Era MTV Music Is the Soundtrack to Outcasts Being Bullied by Jocks" would be far less captivating. 's contributions save the songs from being just more of 's diary entries. He seems aware of this, and the album ties up with a pastoral reworking of ' saccharine hit "The Power of Love." It's one of the few moments on that feels like an actual duet between the two artists, and it's easily the most accessible thing here. Even though an album of more-balanced collaborations between and would have been far more fulfilling, softens the sometimes numbing journal-songs has grown into and is far more listenable than the last few entries that led up to it. ~ Fred Thomas