"If on his eponymous freshman release David Poe was brilliantly brooding in bedroom melancholia, the long-awaited The Late Album finds the alt-folker peeking out to see himself reflected in the world -- from "Childbearing," which parallels the sadness of three couples, to the cowboy-voiced gospel of the eulogistic "Deathwatch for a Living Legend." The subtly theatrical Poe is still wearing his coat of many Michael Penn/Elvis Costello colors. But he infuses his show with Rufus Wainwright panache, as on "Echo Box" -- driving pop delicately peppered with piano. It's hard to pigeonhole Poe: He masters ethereal balladry ("Late Song," in which he affirms his rise out of the mire: "I'm not dead anymore"); produces orchestral drama ("You're the Bomb") and blissfully trip-hops through the soulful and lyrically masterful "Wear Your Best," wherein he ponders fame and fortune and the sad acknowledgment that "one book is all you ever read and it's all you're going to need." Poe is still a poet; but here, every line reads more like one from a journal, instead of a diary." - Rolling Stone, June 30, 2002 If David Poe is exploring the mystery of pop, The Late Album (Sony/Epic, 2002) was his searchlight. The Late Album sheds light on the dark stuff at a seductive pace, while Poe revels in the roguish eclecticism that marked his universally acclaimed debut, his charmed voice floating with grave finesse over guitars, drums and orchestras. Recorded in five different locations over one a