Jim White Makes Partially Good Album

Jim White is a guy I’ve never warmed up to. It’s always seemed like he approaches trad Southern music as if it’s a thesis for a college course at best, or at worst the way a New York gallery owner displays rural folk art but has no connection to the experiences or environment that went into its creation. In short, phony and pretentious.

I don’t know what happened, maybe he underwent some tragic upheaval or messed up shit, but a third (maybe) of his new album, Waffles, Triangles and Jesus (out Feb. 9th) is pretty good, direct, personal and emotionally moving. Sure, the other half is still hokey and terrible, sounding like shit Paul Simon would’ve rejected for Graceland if he was obsessed with lower Alabama rather than lower Africa, but a partially-good album is better than anything the current Athens resident has ever released before. Holly Golightly and Cicada Rhythm’s Andrea De Marcus are among the participants. No confirmation to the rumor that “Waffles, Triangles and Jesus” is also the name of a kitschy new breakfast/brunch eatery/drinkery spinoff of Sister Louisa’s.