In terms of winning new fans, Alex Bleeker and the Freaks straddle a slightly skewed equilibrium. For every person drawn to the Real Estate bassist's side project due to the fact he's… well, the Real Estate bassist, twice as many are no doubt turned off when they hear the associated words "country" and "Deadhead".
Bleeker loves The Dead. A lot. But if you don't, then fear not, because 'Country Agenda' is only peppered with their presence rather than fully seasoned. With just one track surpassing the five-minute mark, it's an album which eschews indulgence in favour of the sort of taut, insouciant balladry which seems purpose built for train-window gazing on twilight nights. It's not all bucolic either, with Bleaker's indie pop background evident on foot tappers like 'California' and 'Sealong Hair', while the scale sliding 'Honey, I Don't Know' is pure cabaret blues.
Where the record falls down is in its at times grating benignity. 'Country Agenda' is inoffensive at worst and nice at best, and there's not much here that you couldn't find done better on a Wilco or My Morning Jacket record.
Still, with a fully formed line up supporting him for the first time, it's Bleeker's most mature output yet and solid terra firma for fully realizing the group as a band in its own right rather than a mere side hobby. Who knows, next time, maybe channelling some of The Dead's impish sense of adventure wouldn't even be a bad thing.
7/10
Words: Graeme Campbell
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