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Under Cold Blue Stars

Josh Rouse
1 disc

1. Twilight
2. Nothing Gives Me Pleasure
3. Miracle
4. Christmas With Jesus
5. Under Cold Blue Stars
6. Very Stories
7. Feeling No Pain
8. Ears to the Ground
9. Summer Kitchen Ballad
10. Women and Men
11. Whole Night Throught, The
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 59
Credits

Producer Roger Moutenot
Engineer
Personnel: Josh Rouse (vocals, guitar); Pat Sansone (guitar, vibraphone, keyboards, bass, percussion); Roger Moutenot (guitar, keyboards); David Henry (cello); Dennis Cronin (trumpet); Mike Grimes (bass); Darren Jesse, David Gehrke, Marc Pisapia (drums); Tony Miracle, Kip Kubin (programming); Curt Perkins (samples).
Recorded at True Tone Studios & Woodland Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.
Josh Rouse has a magic touch with a pop melody, and he also writes songs that are full of personal feeling, evocative detail, and hauntingly familiar narratives. It's the sort of combination that sticks with listeners and helps make UNDER COLD BLUE STARS one of Rouse's most satisfying efforts. The album still has much of the stark, bittersweet timbre of the artist's first albums, but there is a bit more sonic and thematic variety here, showing a marked development in Rouse's art.
The singer-songwriter was based in Nashville at the time he recorded UNDER COLD BLUE STARS, and the album is still roots-conscious enough to reflect its native turf. But Rouse's take on country and folk is much more akin to genre-bending bands like Lambchop than to Music Row veterans, and the layered production and inviting arrangements illustrate that difference. But, as always, it is Rouse's fine songwriting that sustains the effort, and makes it worthy of attention.
Critic Reviews

Spin (3/02, pp.134-136) - 8 out of 10 - "...a wavering, pout sort of falsetto....music that strikes the perfect balance between the pop-savvy shuffle...and...lush loveliness..."
Q (2/02, p.113) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Quietly thrilling..."
Uncut (1/03, p.96) - Ranked #48 in Uncut's "100 Best Albums of the Year" - "Melancholic, compelling and seamless..."
Alternative Press (3/02, p.84) - 8 out of 10 - "...Lyrically keen and immediately catchy..."
Mojo (Publisher) (3/02, p.101) - "From the lovelorn, horn-embellished country-pop he's grown so adept at, Rouse builds a homespun concept album: an 11-song narrative about the ups'n'downs of married life in '50s America..."