Cosmonautical

If the Transmissionary Six were from Texas, everyone would rip them for sounding like Knife in the Water or any number of the state’s many soporific, country-influenced slow-core acts. Fortunately for them, they hail from Seattle, where I imagine their gentle, slightly twangy snail’s-pace melodies pair nicely with a heroin nod. It would take something stronger than smack to make Terri Moeller’s nasal, shaky voice bearable, though.

Cosmonautical offers a few interesting moments, like the backwards-sounding guitar on “Finders Keepers” and some nice weepy pedal steel on songs such as “Your Holland Code.” Wurlitzer and Rhodes keyboards add distinctive flourishes occasionally, but most of Cosmonautical is quiet and subtle, stripped down to multi-instrumentalist Paul Austin’s clean guitar and Moeller’s simple drumming. “They Finally Let Me Drive,” with distorted guitars and a relatively fast tempo, is the closest it gets to rocking out. But rather than relieve the boredom of this album, the song is just jarring in its incongruity.

This particular review CD arrived with a crack on the outside edge, cutting short the last song. That was just fine—it was naptime by then anyway.