On his 17th album, singer-songwriter Chris doesn’t let being a veteran songwriter prevent exploring new approaches, textures, and nuance. The new 12-song set Last Car In The Parking Lot occupies both friendly and unfamiliar territory for Chris, who on the heels of 2023’s Rogue Valley release Shell Game and 2021’s instrumental album On Horseshoe Lake, finds beauty and inspiration to be omnipresent even amidst the buzz of warehouse coolers, happenstance attraction, and deepening sleep deprivation.

The first single, Old Town thrusts the listener through a series of strummy vignettes where ambitious and starry-eyed characters search for their place in a city teeming with life at all hours of the day. On the mellow, acoustic guitar arpeggio second single, Typecast, Chris contemplates a faded yearbook, wondering who will go on to fulfill their high school destinies while ignoring the idea of a preordained journey.

Every song on the album brings the listener to a unique and interconnected moment. The third single Amelia, is a sparse, piano-based love-letter to a now unrequited darling pondering the blinding, bumpy and often lonely journey that burgeoning relationships often take. On the fourth single, Pigeons and Policemen, Chris channels Paul Simon and Elliot Smith on a downcast ragtime stroll down a dirty street after everything finally falls apart. Finally, on Graveyard Shift, Chris tries to stay grounded despite living on the other side of the day, with a Springsteen-esque blue collar plea for company and camaraderie.

Recorded over many years, at various studios, and drawing from sketches both old and new, the idea of LCITPL represents an American icon of potential and loneliness. This last car might belong to someone working overtime to finish a never-ending task; or someone waiting for a friend; or someone giving in, or up on the vastness of a society that welcomes loneliness as a stand-in for real connection.

There are brighter days ahead, and even now, all around us - one must choose to see the silver linings amidst the dusky shadows. Sometimes we need a helping hand to tilt our view a little askew towards the possibilities we’ve long overlooked. With a steady diet of acoustic and electric guitars, piano, and tasteful pads, the sonic landscape of LCITPL steadies one foot in the realm of bedroom pop and another in an after-hours rock club trying to wind things down. As long as the sun comes up, for Chris, there are people to meet, places to go, stories to live and a soundtrack to discover.