“I’ll never be in/ I’ll never be praised/ I’ll never be a genius,”
                                Mitch McVicker sings on “Upside Down,” a sublime, standout
                                track from his sophomore album. Yet if McVicker’s album rings
                                from top to bottom with humility and simplicity, it is a
                                wise-as-serpents approach. Chasing the Horizon may not rival
                                the best work of McVicker’s former roommate, the late Rich
                                Mullins, but McVicker sounds like he’s after something more
                                immediate: to prove he is his own man, creatively speaking.
                                And he does just that by immersing himself in American
                                roots-rock and folk textures. McVicker has crafted an album
                                that’s as laid back as still water on the surface, yet runs deeper
                                with each successive listen. High points include “It Won’t Take
                                Long,” a deliciously plodding big-top stomp reminiscent of
                                Bruce Springsteen’s “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” and the chilling
                                “Suits of Skin,” which uses vibrato guitar, saxophone, and
                                McVicker’s baritone vocal to reinforce the song’s theme: “He
                                chose to make us His home/ So how can we house Him?/ When
                                our souls are wrapped around our bones/ And we got suits of
                                skin.”

                                — Lou Carlozo