1. Floating Around (3.14)
2. It Could Be Time (6.00)
3. Hot Potato Pie (3.09)
4. He’s Not Dead, He’s Just in Texas (3.06)
5. The Fire Rat (2.21)
6. Hang Loud (5.26)

Ladies’n’Gentlemen, I Give You 5‑Track

Being both an excellent composer of erudite back-porch guitar pieces AND in possession of the kind of fine guitar-picking style needed to pull off such feats, Seattle artist 5‑Track has tended to underplay his songwriter skills. Instead, his official records are showcases for guitar whizzkidness. Yup, as if naming your solo act after some imaginary archaic piece of recording equipment was not non-career-moving enough, this mein hairy bastard shoots himself further in the foot by mainly bigging up his acoustic guitar whizzkidness and collaborating on record with such obscure acts as Abalone Sandwich and Glass Goblins thus giving the wider world the impression that he’s most likely to rave’n’sonically rummage like Derek Bailey, shred like Gary Smith or bludgeon like Takayanagi, when in truth 5‑Track warbles sweeter than lost’n’lonely Neil Young during ON THE BEACH, almost as self-satirizing as the very Reverend Roger Kynard Erickson and even challenges the New Lou Reeds’ Lord Stephe DK for delivering up to us a most necessary and much needed – and in genuine broadcast quality too – (in)articulate speech-of-the-heart whilst simultaneously providing spectacular lonely pickèd accompaniment. And better still, said ramalama sits atop a hi-kwoll bed of mixed sonic salad so singular and seasoned you just gots to rewind the sucker again and again. Yowzah or watt, says I. Besides kiddies, I ain’t about to lay on yer earlobes 25 plus geetar instrumentals. No siree. So this Album of the Month #119 is super brief but delivers to your earlobes the distilled 5‑track, the abridged 5‑Track, the YOUNG PERSONS’ GUIDE TO 5‑TRACK, and all clad in a piece of Holy McGrail art that apes Mr. Track’s own. Now that’s thorough! I’m laying on you just 23 minutes of this spaced druid; therefore a second listen will be necessary. Which is excellent because it’s one fuck of a racket. Those of you who know my big Morley wa-fuzz-doom pedal: the one that permeates PEGGY SUICIDE and JEHOVAHKILL? Well, 5‑Track uses that same technique of close-up acoustic guitar through massively distant wa/fuzz/turbo pedals to achieve a similarly Mithraic and wa-everything furore, and a fabulous braining it truly is. To 5‑Track himself I declare, sir, sorry if I’ve molested your own vision of your metaphor in some way, but – while I get a lot of great guitar albums sent for review – I really felt Head Heritage readers would dig your lyrical yawp at a time when such striking lyrical flights of fancy are thin on the ground.