As part of
Capitol Records
' re-emergence as an
alt rock
label after years of near-neglect by
EMI
in favor of the younger, hipper
Virgin
imprint,
Kevin Devine
's major-label debut was released nearly simultaneously with
the Decemberists
'
The Crane Wife
. But where that album found
Colin Meloy
and crew expanding their sound into commercially dubious arenas like '70s
prog rock
and
Fairport Convention
-style
folk
,
Put Your Ghost to Rest
sounds deliberately intended to pull
Devine
from the indie
ghetto onto AAA radio alongside the likes of
KT Tunstall
John Mayer
. Opening track
"Brooklyn Boy"
is built on the same intimate, acoustic guitar and voice combo as
's solo records, but producer
Rob Schnapf
adds strings, piano and other elements to flesh out the sound in a manner more conducive to radio play. Undoubtedly chosen on account of his work on
Elliott Smith
's
XO
Figure 8
-- the albums
Smith
made in exactly the same career circumstances as
, who's an admitted disciple of the late
singer/songwriter
--
Schnapf
does pretty much exactly the same for
as he had for
. While the richer arrangements and extra production gloss are neither intrusive nor inappropriate, it's clear that
is meant as
's commercial breakout. For the most part, however,
sticks to what he does best: emotional lyrics set to gentle,
folk-rock
influenced tunes; the main exception,
"Go Haunt Someone Else,"
is one of the album's bright spots, a playful bit of
neo-psychedelia
similar to
Michael Penn
's more overtly '60s-influenced work. Perhaps too low-key to fully grab the mainstream,
at the very least won't offend
's indie audience. ~ Stewart Mason