Sometimes with Lane Steinberg, it’s a box of chocolates. You’re never really sure what you’ll get. On his third solo album “Passion and Faith”, you mix equal parts John Lennon, Adrian Belew, Anton Barbeau and Brazilian progressive. The juxtaposition of Lane’s pop songs and four covers of songs by the Clube da Esquina songwriters from 70’s era Minas Gerais, Brazil, all sung by Lane in their native Portuguese makes for a strange brew. At one point someone thought I had two different albums playing at once. The Brazilian songs aside, Lane’s echoing vocals and guitar in “What Do I Do With The Rest Of My Life?” works well as a light psyche pop song with strange effects (babies crying) in the background. The sweet sound of “Happy Holidaze” has a bit of hushed XTC anglo-pop, next “How Insensitive” plays like a psychedelic, droning Sisters of Mercy goth pop with a mash-up of two different rhythms. “Christmas In Peru” is a casual, Rundgren-like coffee house ditty. Then we travel to a British music hall in “Why Can’t People Just Talk about the Weather?” But the centerpiece of the album, however, is a 21-minute jam of the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” with Lane playing all the instruments himself, recreating the Dead’s golden era with uncanny accuracy, yet in his own personal style. This will be a challenge to most listeners expecting clean, familiar power pop and although I appreciate much of the Brazilian songs, they don’t match up well against the anglo-pop stuff here. The parts here work better than the sum, but the musicianship is so absorbing, I wouldn’t pass this one up.
