Tracks:
You Still Believe in Me
One Life Away
Sweethearts On Parade
Hi-fi
Fuel for Fire
Four Hours in Washington
Regeneration No 1
Big Boat
Paul's Song
Radio Campaign
Here Comes the Sun Again
Deep Dark Well
Oh Take Me Back
I'll Be Yr Bird
Lullaby + Exile
Well-tempered Clavier

Performer Notes:

• Personnel: Jenny Lewis (vocals); Old Joe Clarks (whistle, bass instrument, percussion); Jordan Hudson (drums); Jim James (vocals, guitar); Vic Chesnutt (vocals); Howe Gelb (piano); John Parish, Rachel Blumberg (drums).
• Audio Mixers: Adam Selzer ; Larry Crane .
• Recording information: Jackpot!; Mike Coyendall's Attic, Portland, Jamaica; Type Fondry!; Wavelab!.
• Photographer: Zak Riles.
• On his second album for Merge Records, M. Ward refines his inventive indie-folk sound, opting for a pleasantly laid-back mood. The record opens with a beautiful instrumental reading of Brian Wilson's "You Still Believe in Me," a song so marked by Ward's distinctive acoustic-guitar phrasing that it's easy to forget it's a classic Beach Boys tune. Throughout TRANSISTOR RADIO, Ward is an idiosyncratic wonder--he sounds like he's been recorded at a turn-of-the-20th-century tavern on "One Life Away," while "Big Boat" conjures up the atmosphere of a 1950s Sun Records studio rehearsal. Despite this anachronistic quality, the record is remarkably cohesive, with each track confidently flowing into the next like a decades-spanning Americana broadcast. With his uniquely raspy voice and his wonderfully whimsical storytelling, Ward is shaping up to be one of the finest singer/songwriters of his generation, and TRANSISTOR RADIO makes that notion abundantly clear.

Professional Reviews: Rolling Stone (p.79) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[Ward] has imbibed a sense of remorse and cold-eyed mortality from country blues and Appalachian mountain music, and incorporates them into his own decidedly modern songwriting..."

Uncut (p.102) - 4 stars out of 5 - "This is uncluttered, radiant music with the lightest touch and muggiest of voices..."

Magnet (p.53) - Ranked #8 in Magnet's "The 20 Best Albums Of 2005" - "[It's] akin to extraterrestrial border radio, bouncing through time, space and memory."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.92) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[T]here's a quality of remembrance about the album - haunted in 'Sweethearts On Parade', warm in 'I'll Be Yr Bird' - which recalls the gnawing ambiguity of Twin Peaks."

Format: CD (1 Disc); Stereo

Country: USA

Studio/Live: Studio

Release Date: 22 February, 2005

Label: Merge