Jim O'Rourke - Halfway to a Threeway

It opens with picked guitars and smooth harmonies on Fuzzy Sun, and these guitars grow progressively more lovely, reaching Marr-like proportions.  The addition of piano creates a lovely sound as the track evolves, packing a lot into its relatively (2.34) short running time.  The summery instrumental Not Sport, Marital Art follows, this one is kind of jazzy, along the lines of The Sea and Cake, particularly when brass enters the fray.  On the other hand the seven minute The Workplace has a kind of faintly embarrassed tone to it, along the lines of mid period Smog with some decidedly odd lyrics about what kind of clothes women and men "look good in" (each others). You can't help feeling there's more to this one than meets the eye, that O'Rourke is scratching the surface of something or other, though later we get a gorgeous coda with guitar picking and relaxed "da da da dom" vocals.  This relatively short EP finishes with the title track, the sparsest thing here, a kind of simple folk song.  There are worse ways to spend 20 minutes.