Joe Pernice must have a thing for ironic song titles. The title track of his last album was called Overcome By Happiness and now he's penned a tune named Breakneck Speed. Uh-huh, right. As the leader of Scud Mountain Boys, The Pernice Brothers and now Chappaquiddick Skyline (essentially the Pernice Brothers band minus sibling Bob), Joe's compositions have moseyed along a similar rustic-pop path with shoulders slouched, head hanging and heart breaking. No change here. Pernice's first words on the album are "I hate my life," and we soon find out why, as he reels off a series of songs about pining for a woman he can't have, or missing a woman he once loved but lost. It'd all be terrible dire if not for the band's intimate arrangements, built around plaintively strummed acoustic guitars, and Pernice's gift for lovely, downcast melodies -- at times recalling Todd Rundgren (Courage Up), other times drawing from Brian Wilson (note the vocal harmonies on Solitary Swedish Houses, or the God Only Knows lyric snuck into Kidney Shaped Pool). Sadly, the chamber-pop strings that coloured the Pernice Brothers' stellar Overcome By Happiness are absent; as compensation, Pernice and Co. demonstrate an uncanny ability to imitate New Order on a dead-on cover of Leave Me Alone.

Track Listing 1. Everyone Else Is Evolving
2. Solitary Swedish Houses
3. Courage Up
4. Two Of You Sleep, The
5. Breakneck Speed
6. Theme To An Endless Bummer
7. Up In Michigan
8. Hundred Dollar Pocket
9. Nobody's Watching
10. Knights Of The Knight Vol. 1
11. Leave Me Alone
12. Kidney Shaped Pool