Originally released in 1999, 's debut is a sparse, mostly live affair recorded with pal and engineer of at in Portland, OR. Listeners who are already accustomed to 's breathy, conversational vocal delivery and soft-picked, West Coast melodies will find much to love here, while those looking for good entry point should probably start with one of his later albums. is peppered with instrumentals in the and -era vein, and 's lackadaisical picking sounds just as lazily precise here as it does on future recordings. There's a real warmth to the sessions that transcends the often bare-bones production. For the most part, it sound like most takes were done live with two microphones, with the occasional overdub, and that style suits 's dreamy tales of molasses-slow teenage summers ( ) and oddball parables like It's also interesting to hear him shedding the inflections of some of his more obvious heroes like ( ) and ). sounds like a debut. It's got some filler and it tips to the end of the scale more often than not, but it's brimming over with promise and timelessness. ~ James Christopher Monger