Jet Black and Jealous
Just when you think no one could have worse luck with women, along comes Paul Sanchez.
Judging by these 13 short songs, women are either walking Ginsu knives ("And your tongue, to my surprise, was a razor in disguise" and, from the title track, "But you beat my arms with your slashing tongue") or they just ain't around ("Another night alone in bed/I wait in vain to hear the door" and "When I woke up I was divorced"). Lucky for him, Paul has something that most of us can't fall back on -- an ingratiating singing voice and a storyteller's ease.
The Louisiana-born Sanchez reminds me of a folkier Peter Himmelman or maybe Luka Bloom, with New Orleans often taking the place of Bloom's Ireland or New York City (both men's home away from home). He uses a cranked up, chunky, Bloom like acoustic guitar to great success on "Confidential Dance" and the insistent "Maria."
Other standouts are the bitter "Picture Of You Wearing Bones" and "Used To Be Crazy," the closest the album has to a rocker and a song that would fit in nicely on a Marshall Crenshaw album. Anybody who puts together an opening line like "I saw Jesus working somewhere in Cincinnati/Looking like a frind of mine a little around the eyes" is worth keeping track of.