Paul E. Flynn - Fields

Coaxing a sultry adult contemporary siren like Louise Carver between the sheets on country-rock tête-à-tête "Changed" is the perfect place to start. It's the kind of radio-ready romantic duet you can just imagine Faith Hill and hubbie Tim McGraw singing in the sack together.

Relax. Fields is a rewardingly schizophrenic listen that finds the urban cowboy in Flynn mapping the forgotten Southern rock links between the Black Crowes and the Kings Of Leon ("Mo'Fire"), while channeling Van Morrison's brassy rhythm 'n' blues on sublime gospel murmurs ("May God's Work Resume"), freewheelin' country-road cruises ("Blue Hitchhiker"), and a pair of bottom-of-the-relationship-bottle rockers ("Of Girls And Guns"). Finally, an SA rock album with enough good old fashioned heart and soul to mainline some much-needed poetry back into an indie scene o-ding on skinny-jeaned pastiche.