In Brief

The guitar still behaves almost reverentially at the hand of Lloyd, a founding member of ‘70s New York underground heroes Television and extraordinary contributor to Matthew Sweet’s 1990s records. In his first solo album since 1987, Lloyd punctuates 10 poignant stories with stark sonic moments, and his frequently pallid vocals recede behind these acrobatics--the opening shards of “The Knockdown,” the searing reports on “Torn Shirt” and, finally, a chilling phrase played in lieu of the word “dead” on the closing number, “Cortege.”

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.