Lingering for years without much to say

Daniel Lanois' solo efforts may be overshadowed by his production work with Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, U2, Emmylou Harris and other famous rockstars, but his sound can hold its own. Shine is the Canadian's fourth solo trial on a fourth label in 14 years. His sound is watery, wavy and skyshown, his lyrics simple -- capturing his feelings without trying to dress them up. While it's easy to grasp the concreteness of his metaphors and descriptions, if I hear one more artist sing about his "angel" woman, deserts and waterfalls in a love song I might just vomit with boredom. Lanois centers on tenderness and love, and his songs sound like the musical personification of such. The tempos are as mild as his airy vocals, pairing to give you a pasteled, impressionistic painting of his convictions, but without enough drive or force to make him believable. I kind of get the feeling he's a rich bastard, singing of meeting his subjects in San Juan or whatever exotic locale fits the mood. He brings in Harris, Bono and samples a little Charley Patton, and their additions help to flesh out the sound. A plus is his adoption of some more unorthodox sounds, looping ambient noises and spacey synths and occasional drum machine backbeats, matched with more typical guitar and piano melodies.