I’m not sure what bloggers see in Castanets’ Raymond Raposa, whose drunken-cowboy posturing and sparse, sustained-note songwriting leaves me cold. Oscillating between temporal electronic pulsing (“High Plain” parts 1-3) and strumming echoes from a badly-tuned guitar, Raposa seems obsessed with fleeing from whatever one-horse town he dully chronicles (“Glory B”, “Refuge 2”.) And while some lament John Darnielle’s nasal voicing and hyper-literacy, Raposa’s voice and scant lyrics read like the SparkNotes version of The Mountain Goats. Eventually the album’s irritating qualities stem from a familiar recapitulation of a tired formula. It’s a shame what hype can do to an artist who might have potential to develop — despite his reputation, City Of Refuge is completely lifeless and totally uninspired.

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