Southern alt-country singer/songwriter Jim White delivers another profound record with his latest, Transnormal Skiperoo. The well-traveled White has reportedly been everything from a preacher to a professional surfer to a New York City cabbie, but his home remains on the road, even now, after passing fifty. His first release since being covered in BBC4’s award-winning documentary, Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, in 2004, Transnormal finds White both more at peace, and more willing to shake things up.
This isn’t to say White doesn’t deliver the sad, stripped, beautiful alt-folk he’s best known for: look no further than leadoff track, “A Town Called Amen” – he says it reminds him of an Ingmar Bergman film. There are other carrying tragedies on Transnormal, like early song “Jailbird”, and later ones “Counting Numbers In the Air”, “Plywood Superman”, and “Pieces of Heaven”. However, none of those tracks match the complexity of “Amen”, or his more blues-y numbers. For much of that, White goes more laid-back, even grooving at times, such as with second track “Blindly We Go”. While that piece does veer a little ‘new country’, there’s a sly charm to “Fruit of the Vine”, and nighttime coolness to “Diamonds to Coal”.
But some of the most interesting stuff on Transnormal goes straight up upbeat and old school. There’s a catchy, rollicking fun on the wry “Crash Into the Sun”, making it the easy pick for potential single. The hokey weird-folk of “Turquoise House” plays nice as a change on the record. And while bluegrass finisher “It’s Been a Long Long Day” is a bit too simple, White gets some old-time religion on the crazed “hillbilly stomp”, “Take Me Away”.
It really shouldn’t be surprising that Jim White can vary things up: he’s collaborated with everyone from Morcheeba to David Byrne (whose Luaka Bop label produced Transnormal). But it’s great to see him both find his groove, and not get stuck in any rut.
