love and a safe place for cast-offs to stay
Like a Weakerthans cd, 'Lit from Within' is full of empathetic poetry with a precision - for physical and emotional details, for the weighing of souls - that destroys the grading curve lyrically (see in particular "Slow Learners", "Good Lives for Bad Reasons", and "You are a Reservoir") and sneaks humor around the edges (notably "Regrettable Tattoos", "Illness as Metaphor", and "Crude Instruments", all of which are moving even while slyly amusing). The music, except the mesmerizingly tense synthesizer-aided "a Year on Trial", is a humble blend of folk, rock, and alt-country.
