Jay Farrar has been on a long losing streak. It's been nearly a decade since his genre-defining band Uncle Tupelo split up, and despite a memorable debut album from his post-Tupelo band Son Volt, the man has long skated by on past glories. With each new album, it's getting harder and harder to justify his continued relevance. The last two Son Volt albums, Straightaways and Wide Swing Tremolo, were largely monochromatic and lifeless, and that the gravel-voiced Farrar seemed to have run out of things to say and has appeared content to dwell upon the same sad-sack mold he'd been carving out for years isn't helping any.

Last year, though, he took a step in the right direction. He put Son Volt on hold (possibly for good) and released an album under his own name for the first time. Sebastopol was a good idea in theory; all but the most hardcore Farrar apologists had to admit it was time for a change, and Farrar did, in fact, seem a bit rejuvenated by the sessions. The only problem was with the songs themselves. It's as though he thought simply changing his cast would solve the problem-- that he could continue get by on writing the exact same songs he's been writing all along. In hindsight, the album comes off as a missed opportunity at a fresh start.

So how does ThirdShiftGrottoSlack-- a five-song EP essentially made up of outtakes from the ho-hum Sebastopol-- reverse Farrar's downward spiral? Well, it doesn't really. But it does hint that there might still be some hope yet. It shows Farrar is at least willing to try something new (again) before he jumps back into the relative safety of Son Volt. The results are mixed, but at roughly 20 minutes, it's hard to accuse this EP of redundancy, my main complaint concerning Farrar's last couple releases. Taken individually, Farrar's songs have always been above par; it's only when one tries to digest 40+ minutes worth that they become tedious.

The high point here is a Tom Rothrock (Beck, Elliot Smith, R.L. Burnside) remix of "Damn Shame", which originally appeared on Sebastopol. Although it sounds like a horrible idea on paper, Rothrock loops the drums and pumps up a slide guitar to create a smooth, soulful groove that sounds a lot like the white-boy funk of Little Feat. Farrar has never sounded less stiff as he hums the melody line, his scruffy baritone descending as he sings, "It's a damn shame, damn shame, damn shame..." It's exactly what he needs right now, to loosen up.

Elsewhere, however, it's Farrar as we've unfortunately come to know him in recent years. "Greenwich Time" is a stripped-down acoustic song that's tolerable only if you don't pay too much attention to vague, semi-political lyrics like, "Ballot box open, temperature rising, and all the cloning nonchalance." "Station to Station" (not the Bowie song) is a pleasant enough piano-led track, while "Kind of Madness" (featuring Steve Drozd of the Flaming Lips) is morbidly humorous as Farrar gives a deadpan freak show role-call which chronicles (among others) a guy who chops off his arm so he can "save it for later." Sadly, the song is bogged down by careless lyrics like, "Stripmalls of road rage are bringing us down." It's the kind of thing I'd expect from recent Ryan Adams. And "Dues" finally rounds out this mixed bag with an upbeat rocker colored by slide guitar and organ, which still fails to leave much of an impression.

Of course, it's too much to ask of an EP to single-handedly turn around the career of a near-legend who's fading fast-- ThirdShiftGrottoSlack doesn't even come close. It does, however, hint at the possibility that there is still magic left in the man-- just enough of a hint to postpone writing him off completely. I'll give you one more shot, Jay. Just one.

-Jason Nickey, September 10th, 2002