Vic Chesnutt: Left To His Own Devices

A collection of previously unreleased four-track recordings, Left To His Own Devices could—a few weak tracks in its middle aside—easily pass for a fine new Chesnutt release, a return to pared-down solo work after a string of collaborative efforts. Collected from Chesnutt's 1989–99 work, the album features him at his most direct and intimate musically and, at moments, lyrically. This last feature at moments works against him, as the occasionally trivial subject matter reveals the songs as leftovers in a way the music does not. "Deadline," for instance, seems to concern the perils of missing deadlines, but Chesnutt's uncanny vocal channeling of Neil Young makes that fact easy to ignore. More typical of the album, and of Chesnutt's talents, is "Very Friendly Lighthouses," one of his most gorgeous songs, with words as evocative and puzzling as the music is enveloping. "I'm even sometimes offended by / very friendly lighthouses," he sings, in a way that allows the statement to make a weird kind of sense. Just when Chesnutt seems to have established that he operates better through obfuscation than revelation, the album closes with a pair of moving, nakedly emotional tracks that suggest otherwise: "Squeak" and "Look At Me," both bold self-assessments of his life and music. "It may not be pretty my life up to here," he sings on the latter, but even on these casual recordings, Chesnutt shows his ability to transform hardship into beauty.