LANE STEINBERG
The Return Of Noel Coward's Ghost (Cheft)

Pop underground connoisseurs may fondly remember Peyote Marching Songs, Volume 1 by Noel Coward's Ghost, a 1995 album of quirky art-pop tunes that didn't stint on the melody even as one-man-band Lane Steinberg piled on the unexpected arrangement shifts, oddball lyrical twists and R. Stevie Moore-like stylistic detours. Well, this 20-track release is pretty much Peyote Marching Songs, Volume 2. Steinberg -- whom you may also know from the Wind, the Cheepskates and his current duo, Tan Sleeve...and if you're like me, you may STILL regularly confuse him with Akron new waver Liam Sternberg, which I do at least once a year -- is a gifted pop songwriter. However, he's never happier than when taking a straightforward guitar-pop tune and layering it with found sound (these songs are linked by dialogue snippets from an old Hollywood film), ornate vocal arrangements like the contrapuntal overdubs on the brief, lovely "Gain Luster" and groovy neo-psychedelic arrangements with Indian percussion, harmonium-like drones and other bits of atmosphere. Sometimes it doesn't work -- the overstuffed faux-middle eastern pop-rock of "Jerichaio" would be twice as effective at half the length -- but most of The Return of Noel Coward's Ghost will appeal to those folks who wish Andy Partridge hadn't ever left the studio between 1982 and 1990.

--Stewart Mason