Jim White: No Such Place

Between low-budget movies and postmodern ironists, it's a wonder there's any of the Gothic South left for Jim White to explore. But that hasn't stopped the gospel enthusiast, surfer, model, and singer-songwriter from trying, or from succeeding. No Such Place opens up the sound and themes of his 1997 debut Wrong Eyed Jesus!, an atmospheric, folkish album in which nearly every song seemed to be about God, heaven, angels, or some combination thereof. Produced by an odd but effective team including Morcheeba, Sade collaborator Andrew Hale, and others, No Such Place places White's washed-out singing and strumming in a variety of contexts that usually prove far more hospitable than might be expected. The Morcheeba-produced "Handcuffed To A Fence In Mississippi," possibly taking its cues from the recent experimental R.L. Burnside albums, uses electronic techniques to emphasize the inherent repetitiveness of the blues to nice, almost hypnotic effect. But the same team also produces the album's weakest moment, the overly insistent "10 Miles To Go On A 9 Mile Road." White remains at his best when allowed to create an atmosphere, and the upbeat pop of "Road" seems about as wisely conceived as a collaboration between Leonard Cohen and Rodney Jerkins. Elsewhere, the album plays to White's strengths, allowing him to bring a writer's eye for detail and a storyteller's talent for transfiguring the mundane to "Corvair" and "Christmas Day." "I remember quite clearly / a bad Muzak version / of James Taylor's big hit / called "Fire And Rain," White sings on the latter, recalling a holiday spent in a Greyhound station, and Sohichiro Suzuki's production wisely lets him have his way without relegating itself to mere background noise. Elsewhere on Place, through distorted vocals and a tinned beat, White reveals Roger Miller's "King Of The Road" for the tale of alienation that it's always been, making it clear that the lonely, ghost-plagued South will always have room for a voice this distinctive.