Out Into the Snow is full of gorgeous human gestures from well-developed characters rising and falling in overlapping arcs of time. Brazen songwriting, like all great art, challenges even more than it entertains. Another mile-stone performance from Simon Joyner, perhaps the greatest songwriter you've never heard. Sounding sometimes like Doug Yule era Velvet Underground (with some Paris 1919 John Cale thrown in for good measure), on the Beach period Neil Young, Happy/Sad era Tim Buckley, and Our Mother the Mountain period Townes Van Zandt, the album is littered with complex characters.