The Baseball Project

Despite a high-profile line-up that includes Peter Buck from R.E.M. and Steve Wynn from Dream Syndicate, the Baseball Project will be too niche for most listeners. As their name suggests, the group sing exclusively about baseball, and their knowledge of the game is nothing short of encyclopaedic. Even sports fans will likely struggle to understand the list of nicknames in "Panda and the Freak" or follow the ultra-detailed history of the Minnesota Twins in "1976." Unfortunately, the music isn't quite good enough to appeal to non-baseball fanatics, as this mostly sounds like the work of a solid-but-unremarkable bar band. While many will be drawn in by the high-profile list of guests, including Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan, Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard, the Decemberists' Chris Funk and the Hold Steady's Craig Finn, Volume 2: High and Inside is an album for completists and baseball diehards only.