From Heaven

Comedian Todd Barry isn't so much tortured as terminally ticked. His delivery is quiet, laid-back, kinda creepy, and comes with plenty of acid, but on his third album that uneasy feeling comes on less often than before. Here, Barry communicates and connects with his audience like a true pro. Mundane everyday this-and-that like shopping at Trader Joe's or Old Navy are now hot topics, and Barry's ability to improvise has grown, putting him and the widely appreciative audience captured here in tune. Thanks to the improved pacing of the unsettling and strange material, where to laugh is all the more obvious, pointing him in the direction of Steven Wright when it always seemed he could have gone Andy Kaufman. His routine doesn't dwell on any topic for too long and he makes sharp right turns with abandon. Still, when he goes from discussing his own CDs to imagining Bruce Springsteen getting stood up right before dreaming aloud about running into George W. Bush at party, it's a surprisingly smooth ride. Above it all, Barry is sharp, funny, and able to point out the absurd things in life most everyone else skips over. His forever beaten down and bitter attitude makes him an acquired taste, but this is his strongest work yet so if you don't like From Heaven than you just don't like Todd Barry.