Arms and Legs

Here's the album one hoped for from Danbury, CT solo singer Scott Daly. Both songs from a previous single appear, and the new eight are as un-augmented; it's just a talented singer/songwriter with his unadorned acoustic (and some light brush drumming or piano in turns), on what sounds like a peaceful afternoon. The White Album Beatles intimation remains (not just on the single "Alice"), channeling Paul McCartney's sugar songs/personality on guitar, not piano (or John Lennon's "Julia" sound). And again, Daly is to Elliott Smith as Interpol's Paul Banks is to Ian Curtis — it's uncanny. But that's just an accident of birth, and it's great, anyway. You're reminded that for ten years quiet has been the new loud, and this winsome, endearing affair speaks that lingering, leisurely language: the sounds of listeners harboring a new crush.