Astronautalis

If The Mighty Ocean and Nine Dark Theaters serves as your introduction to Astronautalis, it may be hard to believe he initially made a name for himself as a freestyle rapper. Maybe because the record is a varied hodgepodge of American music styles that veers more closely to indie than "undie,” or maybe because when Astronautalis speeds up he sounds remarkably like Butthole Surfers front-man Gibby Haynes in "Pepper” mode. That’s not a knock, not exactly; the album’s slow, off-handed beauty is often reminiscent of hazy, sun-baked ’90s Modest Mouse without the spastic, caustic freak-outs, but you’ll certainly spot a number of other noble influences along the way (Silver Jews and the Postal Service, to name a couple). The album was apparently intended as a four-part narrative on adolescence (not a coherent storyline, but rather a collage) and it succeeds. Astronautalis’ imagery is evocative enough that the album effectively feels like a stack of photographs (a metaphor reflected in the layout of the liner notes). But that brings us back to the rapping. Not that the Florida-native embarrasses himself, but sometimes his songs seem much better-suited to singing than rhyming. It’s an uncomfortable hybrid that lends Astronautalis a distinctive style, but the songs here show he could be on his way to developing something more important: a distinctive voice.