September 29, 1998

American Water

Welcome once more then to The Secret Diary Of David Berman, Aged 30-something....

7 / 10 WELCOME ONCE MORE THEN TO The Secret Diary Of David Berman, Aged 30-something. Accompanied by Pavement's Stephen Malkmus, 'American Water' continues Berman's trademark of not so much singing as randomly dictating from the countless notebooks he's filled since now and last Wednesday.

Now propped up by Malkmus' bluesy Velvets-pop (ie, it sounds like Pavement), Berman's world is a homespun one populated by astronauts, tankers of booze, shattered hearts and 'Honk If You're Lonely' bumper stickers.

All of which can't help but get a tad cloying when Berman constantly returns to his beloved bottle, but 'American Water' works as a skewed, nay, stewed slice of Lambchop-style Americana. The tunes are homespun (a dreamy 'Federal Dust', a summery 'People'), the vocabulary is verbose and the vibe is an intoxicating one, two great mates gleefully trying to verbally out-point each other over a drink or three but somehow pouring out an album affable enough to forgive obscurist accusations.

Maybe it's something they put in the Water. Or the whiskey.