On his second album, Lovett solidified his songwriting abilities and his style, emerging as Nashville-via-Texas's answer to Randy Newman. Beneath PONTIAC's ornate production and elegant melodies lurks major-league irony and cynicism. Lovett's resonant, Jesse Winchester-like deadpan delivery is the Kabuki mask behind which insecurity and anthropomorphism run gleefully rampant. Our boy seems to have more troubles with women than the young Elvis Costello did; in "L.A. County," he drives cross-country to go postal at the marriage of his ex-love and her new beau. "She's No Lady" finds the narrator married and in the throes of existential despair, though it's mollified by some slick, jazzy chording.

All this expertly crafted sarcasm is redeemed by the poignant, elliptical "If I Had a Boat," a folk-country ballad full of touching, poetic imagery, and by the Townes Van Zandt-ish "Simple Song," whose simple, minor-key melody carries considerable lyrical heft. As "She's No Lady" and "If I Had a Boat" remained staples of Lovett's shows for years to come, PONTIAC is rightly regarded as one of his key releases.