Album Review

Langhorne Slim isn’t exactly the handle you’d expect a singer/songwriter to have. It sounds like someone you wouldn’t want to take on in a billiards game in the wee hours of the night. Or someone you wouldn’t want to run across in a dark alley following that game. But a poet with an acoustic guitar? Not quite.

Maybe his moniker is apropos though, because Slim isn’t exactly just another lo-fi troubadour with a guitar. On his new album, Be Set Free, he shows that he has a firm grasp of song construction, gets able support from an excellent band, and he works the album just like a pool shark running the table.

Better still, he never falls into a groove of one acoustic lament after another. Each song brings a bit of a surprise to the table musically, whether it’s the out-of-left-field banjo on “Land Of Dreams,” or the call-and-response vocals of “Cinderella.” Touches like these might not seem like much within each song, but they make for a much more rewarding experience when listening to the album as a whole.

The album-opener, “Back To The Wild,” sets the tone with a confident saunter and Slim’s wise-beyond-his-years lyrics. But just when you think the Dave Matthews vibe might persist, the second song, “Say Yes,” bounces with enthusiasm and Slim’s heart unabashedly out on his sleeve as he tries to persuade a reticent girl. Next up is “I Love You, But Goodbye,” which, as the title suggests, is broken-hearted balladry. You get a sense of the musical variety on display from the first three tracks, and on it goes.

The ballads can be a bit problematic, with Slim straying into James Blunt territory with the pained vocals. More of an issue is the lyrical content, which suffers from the conundrum that befalls many songwriters: By attempting to make universal statements, Slim relies on clichés and bromides (“Time will tell/What will be, will be” is one of many examples). A little more specificity and detail would go a long way to making these songs hit home.

Still, there are more than enough high points to compensate. “Leaving My Love” is one slow song that does manage to stand out, boosted by a pretty melody and Slim incisively getting at the painful incredulity that one feels when a relationship runs its course. “Yer Wrong,” with some fuzzy guitar sneaking into the mix, adds a bit of feistiness that serves as an antidote to all of the well-intentioned earnestness elsewhere.

By the time Slim leaves the building on the warm-hearted country stomp “Boots Boy,” it doesn’t seem like there is a single musical genre that he has left unexplored in the course of just 13 songs, none of which seems forced or forgettable. It’s that kind of nimbleness that should serve him well going forward. As for now, Be Set Free is the next step forward in the career of a very promising talent. Just let him wield that guitar like a pool cue, and watch him do some hustling.

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