Someone ought to tell Dave Lionelli that if you call your album Acid Folk, people are going to have certain expectations - none of which are fulfilled on his debut album. That may or may not be a good thing, depending on how you feel about Devendra Banhart and his psychedelic strumming ilk. Dave Lionelli's strengths lie in his songwriting abilities and the country-folk-r&b arrangements that surround them. There's no place to hide for the singer-songwriter, armed only with basic instrumentation and a voice - fortunately, with a sound rooted in the past, he delivers in spades. "The Gala Affair" is all swirling organs and a chugging rhythm, and the album's highlight "Condemnation", which repeats the trick with the keys, and adds a lyric which is as dark as anything Townes van Zandt came up with.
