I have to mention this one again. I've been listening to this thing like crazy throughout the summer. It's the first album I've loved front-to-back in a seriously long time.

Okay, in fairness, I think "Seafrost" goes on about three minutes too long. (The droning at the end is just gratuitous.) And I'm not so hot on "Beautiful Son" or "Rubber and Glue". But I'll overlook those granted how much I absolutely love the rest of the album.

More highlights: "Youth Overrided", "Lost in the Air", "Woodwork"

I was a big fan of The Grays' "Very Best Years" when I was in college. But other than that, I wasn't really curious about this album. The band broke up and the album went out of print not long after it came out.

This summer, while poking through DjangoMusic.com's extensive used cd catalog, I noticed that this long out-of-print album was available. I'd figured some years ago that I'd never be able to actually find a copy, so finding it for $8.99 seemed like a nice bargain.

What's interesting about this album is the history behind it. The four musicians in the Grays (including popular indie pop songwriters Jason Falkner and Jon Brion) got together because none could score a record deal on their own. (Industry note: it's far easier to get a record deal as a band than as a solo performer.) Instead, they banded together to perform on each other's songs.

The album itself? I didnt like it at first, but it's starting to grow on me. To some degree, you can tell who wrote what, so there's kind of a weird imbalance. I think I like Falkner's songs the best, particularly "Very Best Years" and "Friend of Mine". "Spooky" is also really good (though it's a song I'd love to arrange differently). Brion's "Same Thing" is also a highlight.

I think I may pick up Falkner's Author Unknown sometime soon.