Pete Yorn: Day I Forgot

After firing promising warning shots on a couple of high-profile soundtracks, Pete Yorn emerged in 2001 as a fully formed talent on his remarkably ingratiating debut album Musicforthemorningafter. Equally informed by John Mellencamp and The Smiths, the disc sounded slick and radio-friendly in all the right ways, and ultimately gave the photogenic singer-songwriter the sort of slow-burning star status that 20-year careers are made of. An album of retreads would have made a sufficient, if unexciting, follow-up, but Day I Forgot only aims that high about half the time. "Come Back Home" and "Pass Me By" live up to Music's lofty standards, showcasing Yorn's most distinctive musical attributes–his weary mumble, his shimmering guitar work–as if working off a checklist. But unlike its predecessor, Day I Forgot falters noticeably in spots, derailing its momentum early on with the tune-deficient "Carlos (Don't Let It Go To Your Head)" and burdening its closing moments with back-to-back dreary ballads. The album's last word, the beaten-down "So Much Work," would be a dispiriting slog regardless of sequencing, but it seems especially dire coming on the heels of the world-weary "All At Once," which finds Yorn's clenched-teeth delivery teetering on the brink of Eddie Vedder appropriation. Sleepers like "Committed" and "Long Way Down" take hold by the third or fourth listen, but it's important to note that virtually every track on Musicforthemorningafter announced itself as a winner during its first pass through the speakers. Day I Forgot isn't a catastrophic step backward, but it's no step forward, either.