Half Japanese: Heaven Sent

Jad Fair, the childlike-genius singer of Half Japanese, has established an unusual place for himself with Heaven Sent: geek-rock's crazy but lovable uncle. Of the album's 10 tracks, the opening title track is a jangly, guitar-based, 65-minute stream-of-consciousness ramble during which Fair rhymes freestyle about almost everything. Because he's Jad Fair, it makes a certain amount of sense, and at times is really kind of cute. Because it's over an hour long, it's also impossible to listen to in its entirety. Forget caveats about the negligible modern person's attention span, and never mind the fact that the album has a decent amount of musical variation; it's just not something most people would enjoy dedicating a full hour to doing. Heaven Sent is pleasant enough to have on in the background while driving, performing repetitive tasks, or watching TV with the sound off, but, well, most people who need music for those applications own some already. The other nine songs are one-minute remixes of the first, and while they're pleasant enough, they aren't justification to buy Heaven Sent. Don't worry, though. Enough people will buy this record out of sheer affection for Jad Fair, and none of them will mind its gleeful pointlessness.