by Rick Anderson With Pere Ubu , singer and songwriter David Thomas sometimes comes across as a slightly loopy misanthrope. But his solo work, while still usually based in rock & roll forms, has tended to be more whimsically pastoral (if no less loopy). This, his first solo album, features songs with titles like "The Birds Are a Good Idea," "Man's Best Friend," and "Crickets in the Flats" and also includes an utterly unattractive deconstruction of the calypso tune "Sloop John B." The backing band includes drummer Anton Fier , a frequent Thomas collaborator, and, rather bizarrely, the great British folk-rock guitarist Richard Thompson . Thompson acquits himself nicely, as you'd expect, but plays as if he's not quite sure what he's doing there -- he contributes an appropriately bouncy chord vamp on the polka-fied "Happy to See You," but doesn't let loose on the bridge where he could have; on "Crush This Horn, Part Two" he's harnessed to an atonal chord progression that doesn't give him any leeway. On the other hand, Allen Ravenstine 's overdubbed synth doodles work very nicely on that track. Overall, this is one that Thomas fans will surely love and that will leave everyone else, as Thompson seems to be, wondering what's going on.