Moody and another guy, Anthony Anzalone, do an LP’s worth of strained, snarling, lumbering rock songs, with Moody doing to the bulk of the instrumentation himself. With their cover of “Bird on a Wire,” and Moody’s well-known art-damaged persona and gravel-studded vocals, the Leonard Cohen comparison’s gonna loom pretty big, but that’s okay. A droning, spitfire collection of tunes that at their peak—such as the ballad-like “Worm Across” and the shimmering “This Is the New Age”—more than make up for the few moments of glaring cheesiness, like when Moody and Anzalone howl like dogs in one of the songs. Moody did a live cassette some time back, five songs with a full band, and between that and this LP, the guy is proving to have a significant number of solid, memorable songs in him. For the most part this is riveting stuff, definitely my favorite release this review cycle. –Keith Rosson (Let’s Pretend)