Pitchfork

If you tune into "Everyone I Know Is Listening to Crunk" hoping for Lil Jon jokes or hints at Dev Hynes' history as a Test Icicle, you are going to be sorely disappointed. Based on weepy pedal-steel-and-organ interplay, the twangy track actually proves that, despite his London address, Hynes, the U.S.-born, UK-bred musician behind Lightspeed Champion, is a country boy at heart. Made in Omaha with collaborators from the Saddle Creek stable-- producer Mike Mogis, arranger/Bright Eyes member Nate Walcott, and Faint drummer Clark Baechle played in his informal band-- Falling Off the Lavender Bridge is smudged with the Nebraska label's fingerprints, recalling the warm, achingly personal Americana of I'm Wide Awake It's Morning.

For this, the autobiographical centerpiece of an already intimate album, Hynes has crafted a tale of post-breakup loneliness in which snippets of melodies from "Leaving On A Jet Plane" and Belle and Sebastian's "I'm A Cuckoo" add to its instant familiarity. (As does Emmy the Great's blithe soprano, which airily mixes with Hynes' plaintive croon.) Such recognizable musical moments are well matched with his simple, universally identifiable lyrics. After all, who can't relate to lines like, "Sometimes/ In the cold night/ My phone rings/ But it's not you"? There are, however, also moments of purposeful strangeness, as when the winding, klezemer-ish woodwinds burble underneath the sighing slides of the pedal steel, adding exotic buoyancy to this honeyed, mid-tempo honky-tonk. But while Hynes' themes may be timeless, his reference points have an obvious expiration date. As when he sings: "Come over/ I just got the new "O.C."/ And if they can sort their problems out/ Why can't I get out the house?" That show might be off the air, but, as Hynes wryly reminds us, its central premise lives on: If Ryan Atwood can survive heartbreak, so can we all.

MP3:> Lightspeed Champion: "Everyone I Know Is Listening to Crunk"
[From Falling Off the Lavender Bridge, due 02/06/08 from Domino]