White Fence, Is Growing Faith (side A)

White Fence borrows from the 60s by way of lo-fi revivalists like Guided by Voices, Strapping Fieldhands, and Bevis Frond.  Tim Presley and his collaborators replace these groups' outsider personae with a hip and very friendly façade.  Where Presley's 2010 debut featured more diverse digressions, 2011's White Fence is Growing Faith focuses more consistently on this core approach.  The resulting songs (if not the sonic palette) are a bit more refined and well-crafted — I miss some of the sloppiness, but at times the craftsmanship flatters his songwriting ideas.  Growing Faith is not completely uniform, fortunately, with asides into everything from a dense psychedelic swirl to literate Dylan-esque moments.  The sound is purposely lo-fi, in a stylized and modern manner — its excessive brightness makes me miss the four-track murk of some of Presley's precursors.  The cover painting is purposely unreferential, which I find surprising as White Fence's music is so referential.