Song Cyclops Volume One

Over the course of three albums in three years, North Carolina's Doleful Lions have gone from mildly quirky (1998's Motel Swim) through strikingly odd (1999's The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!) to, with 2000's Song Cyclops, Vol. 1, downright strange. This 22-track monster is almost a solo album by Doleful Lions singer/songwriter Jonathan Scott, who recorded his vocal and guitar tracks in his living room (complete with background noises and bad edits) and then used the other members of the group to add minimal backing. Musically, the results are kind of tough sledding: 70 minutes' worth of songs dominated entirely by Scott's voice and acoustic guitar leads inexorably to listener fatigue. It's much easier to listen to this album in small bursts, or at least in shuffle play in a multi-disc changer. The best songs are invariably the ones that have the most outside involvement, particularly the full-band "Gimghoul Numerologist," which sounds oddly like Guided by Voices. Lyrically, this album amplifies the oddness of The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!. Repeated lyrical references to real-life fringe figures like psychic Edgar Cayce and murderer Charles Starkweather, as well as a lingering obsession with movie monsters, ghouls, and paranormal phenomena, all of which Scott delivers with complete sincerity, make Song Cyclops, Vol. 1 a rather disquieting listen. It's not like being a witness to mental instability à la Roky Erickson or Syd Barrett — Scott seems perfectly normal, if a little skewed — but at times, this album gets more than a little creepy. This is more of an interesting album than a completely successful one.