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Portland Cello Project
The Thao & Justin Power Sessions
Kill Rock Stars
Rating: 3 out of 5

The album kicks off with a spare and mournful adaptation of modern classical composer John Tavener’s “The Lamb,” a piece that would be well suited scoring a bleak art film about a lonely man driving across a vast, lifeless desert. It’s an unconventional way for a bunch of hipster cellists to introduce the listener to a collection of pop songs, but at the same time it drives home the point: the Portland Cello Project are classical musicians. Serious classical musicians.

But, wait! They’re playful pop musicians, too! As soon as they’ve lured you into a palpable sense of melancholy with “The Lamb,” they snap you out of it with the best pure pop song of the collection: Thao Nguyen’s “Beat (Health, Life, and Fire).” This one hits like an ice cold beer on a hot summer day; a refreshingly upbeat song that has Thao slinging her syllables with the kind of gusto we became accustomed to on last year’s excellent We Brave Bee Stings and All. The PCP (plus a percussionist or two) proves itself perfectly comfortable alongside Thao’s distinctively yelpy intonations.

Local Portland troubadour Justin Power rounds out the opening triptych with the somber “Cut the Rope,” a slightly menacing, nautically inspired piece that demonstrates explicitly how quirky the PCP want you to think they are. It’s a beautiful song, delivered with an enormous amount of heart, but it feels out of place here — especially after the refreshing uplift of the Thao song.

And it’s at this point, after the first three songs, that we begin to realize the album’s biggest problem: The Thao and Justin Power Sessions feels, in total, like a randomly-sequenced mix of material from three distinct four-song EPs:

• On the first of these EPs, a bunch of cool cats with cellos flash their chops with “novel” adaptations of modern classical (“The Lamb”), tango (Carlos Gardel’s “Por Una Cabeza”), indie (Norfolk and Western’s “Turkish Wine,” the only instrumental cut that fits comfortably alongside the vocal tracks), and heavy metal (Pantera’s “Mouth for War,” which is every bit as toothless and dreadful as it sounds on paper). Two and a half stars.
• On another EP, earnest newcomer Justin Power delivers his own heartfelt brand of emo-folk alongside a competent string ensemble. The album closer, “Travel,” is, arguably, the best of this bunch — a lovely road song stylistically reminiscent of orchestrated Iron & Wine. Three stars.
• And on the third EP, rising Kill Rock Stars artist Thao showcases her distinctive voice with the support of some soulful and adept classical musicians (some of whom sound like they’re playing guitars and banjos and drums instead of cellos, but I suppose that’s the point). Four stars.

Had Kill Rock Stars marketed this as separate EPs, I would have recommended the Thao EP to just about anyone who likes distinctive female singer-songwriters. I would have recommended the Justin Power EP, with some reservations, for those who have an eye for developing indie talent. And I might have suggested the PCP EP as a gift for your teenage niece who plays cello. And, since the album is available digitally from several on-line retailers on a song-by-song basis, perhaps these are real options.

Otherwise, for those who have a fetish for hard media or who (like me) have to own the whole album: Three stars.