Ezra Holbrook, Save Yourself

In some ways the second coming of Elliot Smith, in others a reliable everyday singer-songwriter, Ezra Holbrook sweet-talks his vocals in a matter-of-fact voice that draws you in. Tingeing the tunes with strings and keyboards (“Another Light Off in the Distance”) or stripping them down to squeaky guitar strums (“Architect-Archetype) underscore lyrical ironies like “back in my arms someday/That’s what other songs say.” A beautiful and bitter album, ending in the “Blackbird”-soft, gritty-underneath confessional “The Wrong, Wrong Eyes.” A 2 a.m. album if I ever heard one.