Welcome to Motel Reno, situated on a purgato-rial stretch of the Highway to Hell, where the amenities include cable TV, a door mat for dust-ing off your cowboy boots, running water that works most of the time, a bed with a pillow and a couple of blankets with mysterious stains - well, okay, so not much, but enough to launch a series of dreams both good and bad_ Oska Wald, frontman of Berlin garagesters Chuckamuck, here on his solo outing.

Motel Reno gives old-fashioned lo-fi neo-folk craftsmanship, reminding us that the art of songwriting might have yet another day to live.

And perhaps that's all we can really ask for, in these troubled times, which Wald gets to the very bottom of, only to come back up to the surface with the hope and irony we need to breathe.

The Eagles might have their Hotel California, Leonard Cohen his Chelsea Hotel, but Motel Reno will always be Oska Wald's home away from home.