2 out of 5

Label: Polyvinyl

Producer: JOA?

3 tracks from the Boo Human sessions, I’m rating these more in comparison to the JOA catalogue, in which case they’re sort of a minor note.  Track 1 is a very minimal guitar and voice affair that works to show how much Tim Kinsella has grown over the years, sitting back with his vocals, a patient twinkling of guitar.  It’s a nice song, and finds a balance of fragility and purpose that comes from doing this for a while.  But it needs to be complimented by some stronger tracks to work – track 2 is a more ethereal beat-based song, which works on repeat listens but, again, paired with the whisper of track 1 it lets the ears wander.  Track 3 is a Neil Young cover, “A Man Needs a Maid,” from Harvest.  I’m not a Young fan, but I can hear it as a cute match for Arc, but I guess that’s part of the problem to my ears that brings this down – I don’t really understand the context of the song (for Young, for JOA), so that ‘cute’ tag I just gave it is how it feels, so it’s not a strong closer.