Jason Collett: Rat A Tat Tat

“I’m just runnin’ a temperature / Happiness is for amateurs,” Jason Collett drawls on Rat A Tat Tat’s first track, “Rave On Sad Songs,” perhaps mocking the role of a self-pitying folkie, embracing it, or more slyly, both. Collett’s twists of phrase bring character without too much figurative baggage: His burden on “Winnipeg Winds” is “heavy as the King James version.” Even though the part-time Broken Social Scenester borrows some dust and part of his vocal style from Blonde On Blonde, that doesn’t account for the swaying grooves of “Lake Superior” or the tense piano-plodder “High Summer.” The ramshackle soul of “Love Is A Chain” and “Bitch City” signal that Collett is never taking himself too seriously, though he might have listeners believing differently for argument’s sake.