January–February 2003
Review: Legends of the Super Heroes (Freedom)
Andrew Dansby, Blender

If heart-on-sleeve patriarchs Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello had beaten some of the juvie attitude out of Paul Westerberg, he might have grown up to sound like Beaver Nelson. On his fourth and loosest album, Nelson grapples with Father Time ("Clean It Up") and injects humor into the bouncing bipartisan protest "Government-Sanctioned Hayride." Unlike mores Americana brats kneeling at the tomb of Townes Van Zandt, Nelson eschews despair on "Anything Easy Left": "Every time I feel half/I think of something whole in the world," he rasps in a comfy, worn-shoe voice. A younger generation of singer-songwriters seem content to be smart or melodic; Nelson achieves both with superhuman ease.