Joe Lally: Nothing Is Underrated

Though Fugazi continues its "indefinite hiatus," bassist Joe Lally has been keeping busy. In addition to spearheading the Fugazi Live CD series and collaborating with John Frusciante, Lally has released his second solo album, Nothing Is Underrated. Of course, few solo albums are actually made alone, and the term is even more misleading when applied to Underrated: After laying down some minimal and sinuous—that is, wholly Lallyan—basslines, a host of guests improvise over them, most notably Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto of Fugazi and Eddie Janney of Rites Of Spring. The result is a batch of spacious sketches that stick to moody atmosphere and vaguely metaphysical lyrics like "I'm not a warehouse of memory / I am not a temporary human form." The X-factor in the equation is Lally's singing; his artless, unassuming voice fades into the background of Underrated as often as it provides a human, vulnerable focus.