The Lindbergh Baby’s Hoodwinked is the musical equivalent of a conspiracy theorist nattering to himself all alone in his homemade bunker.  Lyrical references to runes used in both Norse paganism and white supremacist ideology, the KKK, Bohemian Grove, and one of Anton LaVey’s phony Enochian Keys, but it’s difficult to assess how seriously we’re supposed to take this calvalcade of allusion.  While lyrics such as “I’m gonna build a little Reich down in my soul/Show some pride with rock ‘n’ roll/I’m gonna make it last for a thousand years” sound ominously suspect, their tension is undercut by being followed by “Then we’ll all go out for a few more beers.”  If Hoodwinked is intended to be transgressive, it fails because this particular vein of shock und drang was mined out sometime in the mid-90s; if it is intended to be a lyrical puzzle for the listener, it also fails because it just isn’t interesting enough to focus on for any length of time.

Musically, Hoodwinked is an album of countrified apocalyptic folk.  Though Blood Axis members Annabel Lee and Michael Moynihanprovide some skillful violin and accordion, the real stumbling block on this recording is Scott Roderick’s voice.  Highly affected and generally uncompelling, he just isn’t very pleasant to listen to.

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