Spiral Stairs

Doris & The Daggers

DOMINO. CD/DL/LP

Scott Kannberg’s fourth post-Pavement album hits the mark. Guitarist Scott Kannberg, AKA Spiral Stairs, always was Pavement’s spiritual conscience, and he’s struggled to establish a creative identity outside that legendary band. But following 2009’s The Real Feel, Kannberg relocated to Brisbane, and the Antipodean air clearly infused his work with a fresh perspective. With violin splashing through its strum, AWM has a laconic Go-Betweens sensibility, while Dundee Man is a pan-hemispheric conceptual coup: a Scottish travelogue styled after the efflorescent Dunedin peal of The Chills. Recorded back home in California with help from psych-pop magus Kelley Stoltz, the bittersweet jangles suit Kannberg’s lugubrious croon, peaking amid the yearning Angel Eyes, an emotional tribute to Kannberg’s friend Darius Minwalla, the Posies/Hugh Cornwell/ Spiral Stairs drummer who died just before recording began: “We’ve all got angel eyes, in the end.” It’s been a long journey, but Spiral Stairs has finally found his voice.