Album Review: Transistor Radio by M. Ward

Listening to M. Ward's breezy ode to radio's forgotten heydays is a lot like taking in a huge breath of dust-bowl wind -- however, its charms are rooted in the hazy lemonade-sipping of summer rather than the great depression-obsession of the post-O Brother, Where Art Thou? mainstream. Ward's voice is a slap-delayed pastiche of Ron Sexsmith's easygoing croon and Andrew Bird's closed-mouth drawl, and like his front-porch fingerpicking, it's as effortless as it is effective.

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M. Ward is a young man with a startlingly well-developed sense of nostalgia. His enchantment with the past, only hinted at on earlier releases, blooms on Transistor Radio – from the sepia tones of the cover art to the title’s evocation of abandoned technology, even to the tinny sounds of obsolete transistor radios. His obsession with antiquity aside, Ward is also getting better with age.

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