The Vulgar Boatmen may have a college professor (Robert Ray) for a frontman, but there's nothing remotely academic about 1992's Please Panic. Ray shares singing and songwriting duties here with Dale Lawrence, and together they craft minimalist masterpieces without a superfluous note or syllable. Despite the pared-down approach, the tunes don't feel stark. For all The Vulgar Boatmen's minimalism, these tunes are undeniably warm and atmospheric—sort of the roots-rock equivalent of Edward Hopper's paintings. Even though the album is full of classic American imagery (driving around late at night feels like a way of life for the occupants of these songs), everything is filtered through a modernist sensibility, as if The Feelies or early Talking Heads were covering The Everly Brothers. And while there's a loneliness at the core of many tunes here (sometimes masterfully accentuated by mournful viola), Please Panic still leaves strands of hope to hang onto; when Ray quietly delivers the title phrase of "We Can Figure This Out," you believe him.