John Doe: Dim Stars, Bright Sky

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * * )

As a solo artist Doe has always seemed in the shadow of his former career in LA's primal rock'n'roll thrash-punk outfit X.

Since he stepped back from the noise a decade ago, his sporadic career - interrupted by occasional acting jobs - has been punctuated by low-key albums of promise rather than potential fulfilled.

Here is perhaps his best yet: an understated, often acoustic album which brings to mind Josh Rouse, Paul Westerberg at his most refined, Joe Henry (who co-produced most tracks) and in places old Jackson Browne or a less cynical Loudon Wainwright.

In these simple settings - notably the spare opener 7 Holes, the piano ballad Still You and the lovely, Westerberg-like Faraway (From the North Country) - Doe's melodicism and unvarnished vocals shine on melancholy songs of loss and that rare, real love which is so deep and dependent it is actually painful (Always, Forever For You).

And a song of the other dependency which means too much time in the bathroom (Backroom).

The guests (Aimee Mann, Jakob Dylan, Jane Wiedlin and Juliana Hatfield among them) are discreet, the production sometimes wilfully ragged, and Doe sometimes hits a pop-rock target (This Far).

Perhaps too furrowed of brow and lugubrious for many, but it is an unpolished diamond nonetheless.





(Shock)

As a solo artist Doe has always seemed in the shadow of his former career in LA's primal rock'n'roll thrash-punk outfit X.

Since he stepped back from the noise a decade ago, his sporadic career - interrupted by occasional acting jobs - has been punctuated by low-key albums of promise rather than potential fulfilled.

Here is perhaps his best yet: an understated, often acoustic album which brings to mind Josh Rouse, Paul Westerberg at his most refined, Joe Henry (who co-produced most tracks) and in places old Jackson Browne or a less cynical Loudon Wainwright.

In these simple settings - notably the spare opener 7 Holes, the piano ballad Still You and the lovely, Westerberg-like Faraway (From the North Country) - Doe's melodicism and unvarnished vocals shine on melancholy songs of loss and that rare, real love which is so deep and dependent it is actually painful (Always, Forever For You).

And a song of the other dependency which means too much time in the bathroom (Backroom).

The guests (Aimee Mann, Jakob Dylan, Jane Wiedlin and Juliana Hatfield among them) are discreet, the production sometimes wilfully ragged, and Doe sometimes hits a pop-rock target (This Far).

Perhaps too furrowed of brow and lugubrious for many, but it is an unpolished diamond nonetheless.

Label: Shock