Whirlpool

Tim Fagan fills Whirlpool with clever turns of both lyric and arrangement. He accentuates his ever-present acoustic strum with tasteful lead guitar licks and robust percussion in the rousing opener, "Already Fading," references the earnestness and atmosphere of David Gray with "Stay Awake," and settles back under the bubbles for the fun, mandolin-flecked title track. "The hurting in my back/And the meter maid attack/Dissolve like that in the Whirlpool," he sings, and that extra beer sounds like a good idea to both of us. That mandolin returns for "The Touch," where it emulates the drum of rain on a car's roof as Fagan himself leans toward a nice Bono impersonation. The cut's multiple changes are certainly ambitious, but they're not really necessary since Fagan has already proven he can do much more with considerably less. He nails that notion home with the incredible "A Pillow, an Hour & Me," which builds a four-poster bed with just a voice, a guitar, and witty lyrics. "Well I could be in the middle of a seminar/All about fireworks, cookies, and girls/But if I had my way/I'd hit the hay/While the world still swirls" — if the world's nappers had a theme song, this would be it. The late-album entry "I Date a Songwriter" is pretty hilarious with its skewering of coffeehouse stool rockers, clichéd music criticism, and the inevitabilities of a one-note relationship, but its whizzy synths and alt-rock guitars again are no match for Fagan's gentler side. Granted, the entire song's an inside joke. But it only makes the flirting smiles of quiet closer "Secrets" all the more satisfying. The number ends Whirlpool tidily, drifting lightly between blues and his normal folk-pop amiability.