3 out of 5

Label: Southern

Producer: Brian Deck

I came to Rex by following the Red Red Meat trail of Brian Deck.  Deck has his hands on tons of production, and it’s generally in this softer, folky vibe of the Rex world.  His skills are subtle – I find he brings a gentle layering to things, smoothing it out to a hum without muting all the noises that filter through.  This should work well for Rex, who by this point in their slo-core career were bringing in the strings and world instruments, and the expansion on the airier fare of their waltz EP does produce a pretty unique drone – music this smooth and pretty is not normally fronted by the grumbly country lilt of a vocalist like Curtis Harvey.  But without the blast of distortion that eventually breaks through on their original self-titled album, much of this fades together.  Some plucking of instruments will tickle your ear here and there as Harvey goes up a notch, but otherwise this album could all be one song.  A good song, but, nonetheless.