Aaron Lee Tasjan

★★★ Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! NEW WEST. CD/DL/LP

This Nashville Songwriter! Can Do! Anything! But should he?

Life as a polyglot can become a slog of diminishing returns. During the last decade, Aaron Lee Tasjan has played an expert game of musical hopscotch, bounding between straight-ahead rock and warped alt-country, brooding folk confessionals and slanted pop wonders. He’s at his best when his feet are in several squares at once. His self-exclaiming fourth album digs into the varied strata of powerpop, alternately overlaid in paisley or decorated with drapery borrowed from Big Pink. Tasjan is a cunning chameleon, convincingly trying on Big Star, Wilco, Fountains Of Wayne, and latecareer Elliott Smith in the first four of these dozen tracks. There are wonderfully built earworms here, but callow writing sometimes morphs them into mere infections. Tasjan has an incredible tale to tell, full of surreal brushes with fame. He still seems unsure of how to share it.