Chris Harford

Looking Out For Number Six is short at 25 minutes with eight songs that at times prick the heart strings and others pound it. It's not always a comfortable listen but Chris Harford's distinct, pleading vocals have a Neil Young warmth and sensitivity.

Harford has been around a long time and worked with an impressive eclectic list of names, including Jeff Buckley, Norah Jones, Evan Dando, Loudon Wainwright III, Greg Allman, The Proclaimers, Richard Thompson, Psychedelic Furs and Toots and The Maytals to select a few.

His latest solo album finds him teaming up with his long term cohort Dean Ween aka Mickey Melchiondo. They developed a routine where most of the songs were written on the day of recording with Harford writing lyrics in a New Jersey library in the morrning, and taking them to the studio early evening to be recorded and mixed by 9.30pm. He would meet Mickey at the studio, play him the loose ideas, before co-arranging with Melchiondo tapping out the required drum beats. The result is a stripped down homage of pain and emotional drama with simple, often acoustic instrumentation.

The best moments have a Neil Young flavour like Teach Me, and, the pick of the bunch, To Understand You with its gentle slide guitar. The rockier tracks, the opening What We Do Not Know, a lazy trashy drawl, and the compelling Render Me Still, sounding like Husker Du or Monster era REM, gives the album the variety in pace it needs.

The closing track, The Glider To The Queen, in keeping with the honest, organic production captures, by chance, a real time thunderstorm raging. It all adds to the drama and depth of real emotion that Harford and Melchiondo have produced. The album is not always an easy listen, but compelling for its honesty and underlying warmth.

Rob Barnett, Music News