Left to His Own Devices

AMG Review of Left to His Own Devices

Jason Nickey
All Music Guide

A collection of demos and outtakes recorded on four-track cassette, Left to His Own Devices is Vic Chesnutt's strongest and most memorable album since Is the Actor Happy -- not so surprising maybe given that Chesnutt's strength has always been the distinctive personality he brings to his songs rather than musical embellishments that come later. Herein lie classic Chesnutt lines like "your mother's being poked by some bloke in the Bahamas" (the chorus to "Wounded Prince," an ode to the "richest boy in the world") and "history is a daisy chain of lies" (from "Distortion"), lyrics that might sound trite, melodramatic, or just plain goofy coming from a less able tunesmith. But Chesnutt's laid-back delivery, his self-consciousness to the point of not being self-conscious, and his way of deceptively weaving a personal mythology out of his quirky images, make it easy to succumb to his spell. As might be expected, the instrumentation on Devices is simply Chesnutt's voice and acoustic guitar on most tracks, although on a few songs he breaks out a sampler ("Caper") or an electric guitar (the aforementioned "Distortion"). One interesting sonic feature on Devices is the way Chesnutt harmonizes with himself using multiple lead vocal tracks, sounding at times like a lo-fi, Southern Cat Stevens.