Lullaby For The Working Class: I Never Even Asked For Light

When the Nebraska band Lullaby For The Working Class released its full-length debut, Blanket Warm, last year, the group was almost invariably pigeonholed along with the vast number of "No Depression" or "alt.country" bands that had been popping up—from Uncle Tupelo's spinoffs to less band-oriented projects like Palace and Smog. None of the comparisons really add up, as illustrated by Lullaby's second album, I Never Even Asked For Light: It's entirely acoustic, and occasionally influenced by country and folk, but the album is a strange enough shambles to warrant its own musical subgenre. There's a 'round-the-campfire feel to the proceedings, with lots of acoustic guitars, mandolins, ukuleles and dulcimers, but Lullaby's songs are frequently touched by grander instrumental accompaniment, like strings and horns, the occasional glockenspiel, and the sound of the Pacific Ocean's waves crashing in the background (on "The Man Vs. The Tide"). Making matters more confusing is the fact that while Ted Stevens' awkward vocals are fairly consistent with the band's presumed genres, his odd, obtuse lyrics ("Goodbye porkpie hat / I heard the saxophones crying") are not. I Never Even Asked For Light is messy and inconsistent—and, on songs like "Irish Wake," dreary when they're supposed to be transcendent—but it's an album with subtle, ambiguous rewards tucked in its many secret hiding places.