It's too early to tell whether the same can be said of Jay Farrar. One of Tupelo's two singers (the other, Jeff Tweedy, leads Wilco), Farrar went on to found Son Volt before he, too, went solo. Farrar's debut, Sebastopol, is marked by his somnolent voice and bleak characterizations of Midwestern aimlessness. "Feel Free" and "Voodoo Candle" would each qualify as Son Volt standard-bearers, while "Dead Promises" and "Damaged Son" are trademark meditations on loss and alienation. The most notable departure is the inclusion of synth and sitar, which feels oddly appropriate on "Make It Alright" but foreign throughout the rest of the album. Too much of Sebastopol is given over to Farrar's dreary wallowing, made more difficult by his opaque, mumbled lyrics. There are flashes of genius that recall Son Volt's 1995 classic, Trace, but only enough to make one long for a fuller return to form.