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The bulk of Back and Fourth is more insular, though, serving as Pete Yorn's personal therapy rather than his audience's ear candy.
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Yorn will always have plenty to offer and be palatable at worst. However, his moments of genius are too soon abandoned for monotony.
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With help from Rick Rubin and Bright Eyes producer Mike Mogis, Yorn has found his voice on Back and Fourth, a mostly acoustic beauty recorded in Omaha, Nebraska, with musicians heard on Conor Oberst's Saddle Creek label.
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Yorn’s lightly rusty voice and yearning way with a chorus are, alas, outgunned by his plodding lyrics.
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Most of these ten tracks, though, make Jason Mraz sound daring.
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The singer-songwriter’s poignant lyrics get lost in the same tempo and sound found in his past three albums, offering us songs that lack distinctiveness and originality-and all we’re left with is a shallow perspective on Yorn’s troubled soul.
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The beauty in these half-laments proves mixed feelings can be as haunting as concrete ones.
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It seems Yorn has found his sincerity again....Yet Fourth has its fair share of missteps, most of them coming when Yorn abandons coarseness for a milky, lukewarm production.
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Austin ChronicleYorn's signature cigarette-stained drawl plays over some of his most personal lyrics yet, indicating he's ready to reclaim his role as talented brooder after treading water in relative obscurity the past few years. [Jul 2009, p.131]
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'Social Development Dance' is an accurate representative of Back and Fourth as a whole--an introspective, guitar-driven effort that's worthy of praise, despite some minor missteps.