Man of Sin

Album Review

The first album by Varnaline is actually a home recording by the band's leader, Anders Parker, playing all the instruments himself. Parker constructed this collection of psychedelia-tinged lo-fi songs in his Portland, OR, home, with most of the songs consisting of solo guitar and voice tracks overlaid with odd electronic noises and tape effects. The results sound as much like Nick Drake as they do Palace, with Parker moving from a pained howl to a more resigned, Neil Young-like shrug, occasionally in the course of a single verse. The harder songs, "The Hammer Goes Down" and the chaotic "In the Year of Dope," top and tail the album, leaving the more skeletal songs to comprise the heart of the album. Kind of like a lo-fi indie version of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, Man of Sin is a compelling but occasionally harsh album of real staying power. By the time of its release, Varnaline were a full trio, and later albums didn't have this kind of starkness. Parker later joined Space Needle to record their second record, "The Moray Eels Eat The Space Needle".