Nature's Assembly Line

Jack Logan is a supremely talented, wildly prolific, blue-collar songwriter who hasn’t gotten one tenth the recognition or one twentieth the dough he deserves. With that bit of praise out of the way, it’s easier to report that his first proper release in five years isn’t very good. The concept sounds great: Every Monday night for a year, Logan teamed with a revolving cast of fellow underappreciated musicians with the goal of drinking beer and recording three songs each night. But the 15 tunes plucked from those lo-fi sessions are a lot less fun than you’d expect. The opener, “I Recognize You,” sports wry lyrics and a dime-store Keith Richards guitar line, but there’s a dark pall hanging over the tune that rarely lifts during the entire album. “Come Away” plods along like a tuneless death march and even some of the highlights, like the psychedelic Byrds-like “Dad’s Suitcase” and the swaying, country-inflected “Feels Better in Here,” are weighed down by all the booze rather than livened up by it.