Jason Lytle’s two solo records rarely strayed too far from the template he’d perfected as Grandaddy frontman –synth-infused symphonic indie shot through with a nagging sense of unease – so the band’s first album in 11 years seems like a seamless continuation. Jed the 4th is a sequel to 2000’s heartbreaking Jed the Humanoid, and familiar themes of loss and loneliness recur throughout, most notably on the bleakly beautiful This Is the Part and I Don’t Wanna Live Here Anymore (the latter an autobiographical take on Lytle’s relocation from Montana to Oregon). Ultimately, though, for all its emotional tug, Last Place is solid rather than spectacular, with nothing quite matching the peaks of their first two albums.
