On his third album, Vincent Poag displays a distinct voice as a songwriter as well as a singer. It’s an old voice reflecting on a life already half lived. With its sonic hall of echoes and shuffling rhythm combined with New Orleans brass, the memorably titled “One Step Ahead of Gloom” suggests Tom Waits. Much of the time, however, Poag is closer to an optimistic Leonard Cohen with an occasional Dylanesque turn of phrase, yet the parade of comparisons only sketch a rough sense of his sensibility. On “Young Again,” worrying over the loss of passion and ideas, he even rocks out—just a bit.
