Fernando Review

Fernando
Enter To Exit
(In Music We Trust)

Portland singer-songwriter recruits members of Eels and Richmond Fontaine for latest album.

It must be doubly hard for Fernando Viciconte to shake Elliott Smith comparisons because he’s from Portland, and his Beatles-aping arrangements don’t hurt the argument either. But digging deep into Enter To Exit, particularly “The Devil’s In The Sky” and “Pasajeros,” gets results. The former is an aching alt-country tour going back to his earlier incarnation as a Tex-Mex busker, while the latter recalls his Spanish-language effort, Pacoima, from ’98. Immaculately produced, full of longing, and ultimately vulnerable, this guise still isn’t enough to get him through the bottleneck of likeminded performers.

6

— Kevin Keegan

Category: Spins, Weekly