The Universe And Me

How do you bring a child s curiosity to life? For **Tobin Sprout**, formerly of indie rock icons *Guided by Voices,* the answer is to revisit it with the wounded tenor of an aging piano man; someone searching, desperately, for his place in the cosmos. *'The Universe and Me'* is **Sprout's** sixth solo album; hatched during a seven-year gestation period that included unearthing lost recordings and digging through a treasure chest of memories in his home studio in Michigan, where **Sprout** composed behind his shambling grand piano and trembling, boyish voice. Each home recording was captured live with **Sprout's** band which led to marvelous imperfections. *'The Universe and Me'* takes a deliberately primitive approach that focuses on feeling, as opposed to production. The result is a vague bridge between the ballads of psych-era *Beatles*, and the haunting vulnerability of *Daniel Johnston's* *'Hi, How Are You?'*.