Album Review: How Ill Thy World Is Ordered by Daniel Romano

Ascribed to Daniel Ramono's Outfit -- his longtime road band -- How Ill Thy World Is Ordered is the staggeringly prolific Canadian artist's ninth release of 2020, and the most representative of his particular brand of midtempo, power pop-propelled, neo-prog Americana. Perched at the nexus of 2017's Lee Hazelwood-leaning Modern Pressure and the heady psych-folk of 2018's Finally Free, the 11-song set is a vibrant concoction of Beatlesque countrypolitan ("A Rat Without a Tale") and lo-fi E Street Band grandiosity ("First Yoke") assembled with the enthusiastic, yet sometimes cursory precision of an amateur horologist. Lusty amp crashes, bursts of strings, and Brill Building backing vocals compete for sonic footholds, while Romano's verbose ramblings and antiquated vocabulary evoke Ezra Furman by way of Walt Whitman.

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