The Late Cord

Lights From The Wheelhouse

[3/5] If the Overlook Hotel from the movie The Shining had Muzak, it would most likely be this hauntingly opaque collaboration between singer/songwriter Micah P. Hinson and John-Mark Lapham, the multi-instrumentalist of the Earlies. The first fruits of their union are somewhat of a mixed bag: The romantic lament of opener “Lila Blue” lays down a bed of organ straight from midnight mass that slides into an outro of Texas twang guitar, just as Hinson’s wistful wonderings fade uneasily to black. And with a title seemingly copped from Morrissey (or Fall Out Boy), “My Most Meaningful Relationships Are With Dead People” features a hypnotic piano figure around Hinson’s earthy baritone, a narcotic Leonard Cohen amid a field of intriguing samples and sounds. (4AD) Erick Haight