Not shy about indulging in the occasional atonal moan ( ) or dabbling in faux ( a to his dog wherein he rhymes kennel cough with parvo shots), shifts styles -- , , piano balladry, free , and soft -- with characteristically unapologetic awkwardness. The songs are puckish, distraught, -inflected studies of childlike reactions to the human condition. In the brilliantly titled he sings, "I had to turn away from love to feel safe" with a perverse abandon, as if he might as well revel in the tragedy of the course his life has taken. Throwing off clusters of run-on, stream-of-consciousness lyrics ("Rooster sauce and near beer/Liquid smoke and Job's tears" from ), makes light of stark circumstances, relating a comically skewed vision. ~ Travis Drageset