Moody and reserved, The Fountain is an excellent album of understated pop. Multi-instrumentalist Delcampo, who played most of the instruments here, has created finely-crafted songs which hint at the kind of mild depression that drove the Church to create their classic album Starfish. In fact, due to Delcampo's husky, almost whispered vocals and subtle acoustic guitar work, some songs, such as "Coffee with Tom T. Hall," could be mistaken for long-lost Church tracks. Elsewhere, as on "Argentina (Comari)," Delcampo lets loose a gentle, soothing falsetto which flutters in the breezy melody. This reservation makes the single, slightly cracked note on the pedal-steel-driven "A Chance of Use" sound like a wail of pain.

Structurally, the songs are compact and lean, with only two crossing the three-minute mark and one (the Kid Congo Powers produced "Cremona") not even breaking the two-minute barrier. This does not mean that the songs are truncated, but rather that they do not weigh themselves down, preferring to state their point gracefully and leave. Instead of re-stating his themes, Delcampo moves on to the next track, lending the whole a flowing continuity. After playing the absolutely perfect closing track "To Sleep", featuring some Miles Davis influenced trumpet work by Kimball Brown, I can almost see Delcampo looking back and nodding with well-deserved satisfaction before turning off the lights and leaving.