Resistor

Album review

True Detective may have raised Lera Lynn's profile but it did her no favors. She was shackled to a stage in a gloomy room, singing dirges to an audience consisting of Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn, a barroom purgatory that suggested Lynn only existed in a sludgy solitude. Resistor -- written and recorded with her old partner Joshua Grange in the wake of her True Detective collaborations with T-Bone Burnett -- may trade upon murky moments but it's textured and shaded, plus it carries a pulse. This beat, sometimes subdued and sometimes insistent, is a revelation for anybody who didn't hear 2014's excellent The Avenues, but even those fans may be surprised by how sleek large portions of Resistor are. "Shape Shifter," the album's opener, even harks back to the cool, relentless beat of Stevie Nicks' new wave and Lynn often touches on this quickened tempo, providing a nice contrast to the lingering haze from her torch songs. Even those aren't gloomy: they insinuate; they don't dwell in the darkness. There may not be many moments of light on Resistor but they're positioned well -- the sultry, low-key groove of "Little Ruby" provides a bookend to "Shape Shifter," "Drive" moves along as swiftly as its title's promise -- so they give Resistor shape and momentum, a construction that helps make this an ideal late-night soundtrack.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo