Critics have been calling this Johnny Dowd's "most accessible" album -- but that's all relative, isn't it? For even among iconoclasts, the fiercely independent Johnny Dowd sets high-water marks for originality. Like previous efforts, The Pawnbroker's Wife still finds Dowd wallowing in the dredges of his psyche while somehow avoiding the flip into bloated drama that has dogged such would-be spooksters as 16 Horsepower or even Nick Cave. Dowd's music is stridently slippery -- punk and rock roll are the foundation here (and Dowd and Justin Asher are remarkable rock guitarists), but there's something vaguely techno about some of his music as well. And then there's Kim Sherwood-Caso, whose disconcertingly sweet yet detached vocals can raise the hair on the back of your arms just as effectively as Dowd's foreboding drawl. This effort is top-notch Dowd, however, and if you allow yourself into Dowd's world through this album, you'll find he's actually a somewhat benign host. He even unfurls the Christmas classic Jingle Bells for your listening pleasure. Elsewhere, on the campily euphonious I Love You, Dowd is in a romantic mood...yet "desperately" so. (And Dowd knows desperation.) This fine effort may move Dowd and company in the direction of pop accessibility, but it's still a long way off and Dowd's charming morbidity is still fully intact. ~ Erik Hage, Rovi

1		I Love You
2		Rose Tattoo
3		Monkey Run
4		On Shakey Ground We Stand
5		Billy Blu
6		Virginia Beach
7		Judgment Day
8		Jingle Bells
9		Separate Beds
10		Sweeter Than Honey
11		King of Emptiness
12		Woody Guthrie Blues
13		True Love
14		Sleeping in the Grass