Electric Trim

Electric Trim is Lee Ranaldo’s 12th solo album but it sounds remarkably fresh. [Oct 2017, p.59]

Virtually everything here, in its own edgy manner, points to light, hope and the endless possibility of the human spirit.

Self-assured and comfortable in his skin, Lee Ranaldo is properly striking out on his own and sounding all the better for it.

Lee is free--and it sounds wonderful. [Oct 2017, p.96]

Yielding the most refined post-Sonic Youth album, Ranaldo discovers a new path heavily influenced by the years of contemplative study of The Grateful Dead.

[Electric Trim] features conventionally structured songs that underline his country-folk and Americana interests, while amping up the psych-pop and orchestral alt.rock. [Oct 2017, p.36]

From snaky power-pop to piquant autumnal balladry to the gospel-y back-and-forth of the title track, Electric Trim is a rangy but fluid record, constantly in rearrangement, rarely the same from one moment to the next.

Like the rest of Ranaldo’s work post-Youth, this is a record that suggests that he was perhaps always the member of the band that had the most traditional songwriting sensibilities, and this is once again a thoroughly solid alt-rock effort with just enough of an adventurous slant--particularly, the flashes here and there of glitchy electronic textures--to please casual fans of his old outfit.

If the joy of the album is tracking Ranaldo through his worldly interests, his hippie mode, his indie-rocking, then the struggle is never feeling at home because the record never quite finds its sweet spot.

The diversity of the players is reflected in the sprawling songs, many of feel like patchworks.

What it lack in surprises it makes up for in songcraft. [Oct 2017, p.108]