Although Jack Gibson has moved Tenlons Fort to California for the summer (and isn't expected back in Austin until early next year), his sophomore effort Followed By Bad Luck is a wonderfully inspired album to bide the time until he returns. The same Seventies piano and acoustic pop vibe of The Golden Handshake still pervades the new material, but his latest presents much tighter compositions and offers a more fully developed and mature harnessing of his gorgeously high-pitching vocals and the juxtaposition of beautiful melodies with heartbreaking lyrics.

On the grander orchestrations that seep into Followed By Bad Luck, there's a subtle feel of Brian Wilson's work, the darker disenchantment of the songs fully embracing a brutal emotional core that Wilson seemed to try to resist. The layered vocal self-harmonies only emphasize the loneliness and isolation, even as the entire album wraps itself in a gorgeous, uplifting swell. Perhaps the closest touchstone may be Elliott Smith's later albums, especially on "There's Always Something Wrong With You." Yet whereas the fuller arrangements of Smith's XO or Figure 8 somewhat overpowered the penetrating passion of his songwriting, Gibson finds a delicate and graceful balance that maximizes both.

Opener "Closing Door" encompasses both aspects of Gibson's songwriting, fully tracing the silver lining of resigned sentiments like "Every time you see a closing door, think of me…Because one day I'll be gone, you'll see," with "Cause there's a better place for you, there's a better place for me." The simple, fatalistic honesty is gut-wrenching, spread across acoustic guitar and slight banjo plucks. The deadpan emotion and lilting melodies recall Badly Drawn Boy's exceptional Have You Fed the Fish Today, especially in the airy comfort of "Thank You Shadows" and surging piano of "Wrote About Life." Even the odd electronic-voiced beginning of the title track could gesture toward Damon Gough's quirky interludes that suddenly burst into brilliant song.

The low-end piano chords and rolling drums of "Come Back to Me" create one of the darkest tracks, even as, or perhaps because of, the trilling, almost flute-like interjections. The song also sets up the conflicted tension running throughout Followed By Bad Luck, Gibson wavering between the detached realism of the opening songs that insists on letting go and the overpowering regret of what's being thrown away that emerges later: "Come back to me baby, I didn't mean to push you away, I only meant to combat my fears, But it's my fears that stayed." The relationships that continually fall apart throughout are self-defeating but jarringly honest, the raw recognition of the songwriter's sabotage fully realized. The only moments that interfere with Gibson's transcendent aesthetic are the electronic beats of "The Coin" and at the end of "So Here," the Euro-club backing interjecting an upbeat energy to the album, but distracting from the poignant pull that moves the rest of the songs. Yet closer "Used to Be" is among Gibson's most powerful offerings and ends the album brilliantly, the stark accompaniment barely holding the emotion behind the slowly erupting vocals, the song leaving the album in a perfect state of broken beauty. Followed By Bad Luck is an exceptional work, showing Gibson at his best and with a considerable promise that stretches far beyond his under-appreciated talent

- Doug Freeman