The Album Leaf
“In A Safe Place”
(Sub Pop)
The big promo line for this album (that’s stamped all over the press sheets) goes something like “…by Jimmy LaValle of San Diego’s The Black Heart Procession” but why include “San Diego” in that? Is this trying to persuade people who gravitate towards music from southern California? This perplexes me. “In A Safe Place” is a clever title for music that gives me that same feeling. Very delicate, smooth, girlfriend-giving-you-a-head-massage-at-the-beach-while-you-finish-off-a-bowl-of-hash music… goes from Gloria Record to new age jazz instrumentals.
At points it become tedious and just slightly annoying, but this is more of a passive listening music then anything else. Because Jimmy’s a clever guy, he sprinkled in sounds from all sorts of instruments, and tho it doesn’t give the music any more cleverness per say, it at least adds some originality to an otherwise, eh, type of album.
