JOE HENRY
Fuse (Mammoth)
Rating: 5 out of 7
By Chris Morris

   Singer-songwriter Joe Henry has undergone quite a metamorphosis over the years: originally a roots-oriented performer, he has pursued his muse into stranger quarters of late, and now specializes in a skewed, unsettling variety of pop music. On his first album since the excellent Trampoline three years ago, he continues on his own path. 
   This self-produced effort, with a mixing hand from T-Bone Burnett and Daniel Lanois, enters off-kilter lyrical territory on jarring numbers like "Monkey" and "Skin And Teeth," which hint at dark secrets lurking behind the door; Henry also offers occasional, disquieting samples, an instrumental dedicated to the intransigent baseball player Curt Flood, and wraps things up with a nod to the Byrds and Dr. Strangelove with a straight-faced reading of the music-hall standard "We'll Meet Again." 
   Henry remains an altogether too-well-kept secret; in his unassuming way, he treads untrammeled pop ground to great effect.