Lonesome Leash - Precious Features [CD]

2015 release. Lonesome Leash is the solo project of Walt McClements, an accordionist and multi-instrumentalist known for his work in Dark Dark Dark. Using a sparse palette of accordion, drums and voice, McClements crafts stark yet complex songs, nervous and triumphant hymns to the restless where angular accordion lines take prominence over the guitar in a nervy and strangely cinematic post-punk tradition. Precious Futures strips the songs to their sinew, offering an approximation of the project's "one-man-band" live approach. The album is comprised of fragmented stories where momentum, love, and lust serve as stand-ins for the feeling of home. It is a record that chronicles movement and the thrill of the affair, but also explores the drives beneath those things, all with a wry wit that is so characteristic of McClements' storytelling. The end result is at once romantic, neurotic, and ultimately gratifying.