Chappaquiddick Skyline - Chappaquiddick Skyline (1999)

The name may change from project to project, but what's remained the same from the Scud Mountain Boys to the Pernice Brothers to now Chappaquiddick Skyline is the heart-wrenching beauty of Joe Pernice's melancholy pop -- marrying rapturous melodies with a poetic grace virtually unmatched among his contemporaries, Pernice's confessionals cut almost unbearably deep, giving voice to the yearning and isolation most of us struggle to suppress. Largely eschewing the lush string arrangements that buoyed the Pernice Brothers' classic Overcome By Happiness, Chappaquiddick Skyline instead favors a simple, pastoral approach, which amplifies the stark desolation of Pernice's songs; likewise, his ghostly whisper of a voice suits the material perfectly -- the intensity and intimacy of the moments he captures are much too great to be detailed in anything more than hushed tones, like secrets passed from ear to ear. Reeling from one heartbreak to another, the record's bitter honesty never wavers, documenting an inner turmoil that even the gauziest songs can't soothe; though informed throughout by a growing alienation which climaxes with an unexpected but wholly appropriate cover of New Order's "Leave Me Alone," Chappaquiddick Skyline is ironically enough a work of immense warmth and solace as well, tapping into themes of pain and loss so universal that it's oddly comforting to hear them articulated with such eloquence and evoked with so much understanding.