Review

A full-band knockout from a great Northwestern troubadour.
Did he leave a "d" off the end of the title? Because the fifth release by Oregon's best neo-old-timey guitarist is decidedly post-Ward: a full-band progression from his sidewalk-busker sound. But not to fear, the indie troubadour has abandoned none of his soul-piercing profundity — on "Chinese Translation," a pretty folk jangler that drifts along to the distant, train-whistle oohs of guest vocalist Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Ward asks the Big Questions: "How can a man like me remain in the light?/And if life is really as short as they say, then why is the night so long?" Then he goes all fatalistic when Neko Case, guests on a cover of Daniel Johnston’s "To Go Home," singing (twice, for emphasis), "God it's great to be alive/ Takes the skin right off my hide/ To think I'll have to give it all up/ Some day."

A record that casts a warily existential eye on the future, Post-War forges links to the past: surf-guitar instrumentals ("Neptunes Net"), bare-essentials blues ("Rollercoaster") and '60s-inspired slow-dance numbers ("Afterward/Rag"). The lyrics often touch on soldiers returning from the front, and those anachronistic accents serve to underscore the idea that Johnny-comes-marching-home romanticism is, like the genres Ward explores, a vestige of a very different time. Some may call it vintage, but there's another word for it: classic.