The Coroner's Gambit

With an acoustic guitar, a boombox and a head full of concepts, John Darnielle continues to strike up the one-man-band. Occasional guests such as songwriter Simon Joyner add a few spare touches. But the main focus is on songwriting where simple chords and melodies set the template for Darnielle’s wild and veering stories and insights. Darnielle has been exceedingly prolific thoughout the 1990s, but beginning in 2000 with The Coroner’s Gambit his focus seems tighter than ever. “I’m the hard to find stations on the AM band,” he sings in a hyped-up plea on “Jaipur,” the album’s opener. It’s an accurate description of the sound that includes the mechanical whir of his boombox and the flat, unprocessed sound of whatever room is being used for the recording. Nature takes on deep significance as gardens, onions and birds show up in the lyrics along with obscure musical references. Darnielle can be touching (“There Will Be No Divorce”) or devilishly silly as “Insurance Fraud #2” calls for “bag full of oily rags, fifty cent lighter / dreams of retirement in Cancun burning ever brighter.” Fans of literate folk and pop, from Randy Newman to Ray Davies to the Magnetic Fields should find much to celebrate.