**1/2 John Davis

BLUE MOUNTAINS

(Shrimper)

Like his friend and Folk Implosion collaborator Lou Barlow, singer/songwriter John Davis is a lo-fi home-recording buff concerned less with finishing songs than with simply capturing the raw, if sometimes maddeningly diffuse, creation on tape. But on Blue Mountains he makes some welcome technological concessions in the interest of accessibility. Only four of the disc's 15 tracks are hissy no-fi apartment recordings. The rest benefit from the kind of embellishments that Davis has been shy about employing in the past -- from simple band arrangements, in which he multitracks his own guitar, bass, drums, and organ parts, to melodious doubled vocals.

The result brings to mind a less depressive Nick Drake or unorchestrated Donovan, which is to say that despite moments of organic brilliance Davis still isn't for everyone. His mannered vocals and impressionistic poetry can come off as both indulgent and pretentious. But there's plenty of wry, winsome humor in songs like "Jeep Cherokee" and "I Freaked Out like a Big Truck," and enough polish in the production to make getting to know Davis on his own terms worthwhile.

-- Matt Ashare

(John Davis opens for Sebadoh at the Paradise this Sunday, March 2.)