Alejandro Escovedo

With "Put You Down," the magnetic rocker that opens this collection, Escovedo offers a stark tale of addiction -- though weather it be to love, sex or dope is never specified -- over a plush bed of smoothly distorted guitar. The track is the right way to introduce a record that showcases Escovedo's talent for writing with enough ambiguity to make his themes universal. Though lovely, the Willie Nelson duet on "Nickel and a Spoon" stands out for being the most conventionally country number amongst the lightly experimental highlights like "Guilty" and "Crooked Frame."