"Shout Out Loud" -  starts so carefully. Builds into something wonderfully existentialist by the time he wonders if the people he's watching are as "lonesome as you and me." The video is a great pairing, with solo shots of people in their own settings - one diligently organizing many place settings, only to eat delivery by herself - almost all, at one point or another, looking out their windows, wondering exactly the same thing: if I shout out loud, will anyone hear me?

"Sympathize" - still lonely. Still finding - or believing he's finding - that loneliness in others, too. "The new world is falling, and she ain't got a single person left to confide." Not a favorite, but it fits so seamlessly that you can't skip it.

"Freedom" - he asks a great question when he sings "while the leaders will deny defeat, innocents they testify by dying in the street." It challenges us to be a little more utilitarian, to champion our structured leadership a little less, to tie our sense of self to the truths we too often brush off as collateral.

"Careless" - heavy regret. A lot of grief. Both that a friend could be so careless, but also that he, Lee, ever left in the first place, opening the door. By the end of it all, his ultimate question is how his friend could have been so careless with "her heart," not his own. And it's then you wonder what he finds more heartbreaking: the loss of her or the loss of trust in his friend.

"Skipping Stone" - you may get your answer to the question in "Careless" right here, as Lee sings that "she's left me for something more sure." And just like so much of the album, the sense of loneliness is so crystal clear that you wonder about the year or so he had leading up to this record. The track is one of my favorites on the album. Short, but full. Careful, with hints of gospel. I love how focused it stays. There's purposeful, passing phrasing from an organ, but it never dominates and no full choir ever joins (though you can imagine how well that could have fit, with layered humming, for example). Instead, he finds the right, delicate place and stays there.

"Supply and Demand" - the title track is like a self-help cassette tape. Except it's not, because self-help tapes suck mercilessly and because no one listens to cassettes anymore. But "You need a plan, oh, to understand that life ain't only supply and demand… You know you ain't coming back down" is the best instruction I've heard in a while.

"Sweet Pea" - first heard it in an AT&T commercial (the one where the dad is traveling and lets his daughter know where he is by staging a little monkey in photos he sends her) and had no idea it was Amos Lee. Super literary, groundbreaking musical analysis about this track starts here: it sounds adorable. At first, it sounded out of place because of that, but while there's devotion in "you're the only reason I keep on coming home," there's also an admission that there are no other reasons.

"Night Train" - a little country. The sound pairs well with the setting he creates. I like the symmetry between him being on a night train and him being in transition. He's not looking to replace the one he lost, but he is looking for a chance to love someone. And trapped in the middle, his nights are sleepless (he's "drinking coffee, taking cocaine").

"Southern Girl" - bluesy rock; a little swing. About the lyrics: don't know that they stand out much textually. But the presentation of them does; the phrasing of the verses is great. A lot of musicality in the way he weaves his rhyming pattern.

"The Wind" and "Long Line of Pain" - actually, these are too wistful. I realize Lee has been talking about more than just one kind of supply and demand when in "The WInd" he sings "Man on the street, each day I'm passing. A small bite to eat is all he's been asking for." For some reason, that line made it all click. Translate "supply" as "give" or as "take" and swap "demand" for "want" and the loneliness and the desire fall into place. But the track itself doesn't present supply and demand nearly as interestingly as most of the others. And in "Long Line.." I love the idea of thanking god for luck, and I understand how that luck is probably what got him through the life inspiring this album. The track is still a miss for me, though.

There are two bonus tracks available if you purchased this through iTunes:

"Truth" - great rock sound. It's like the b-side to "Careless." Here, Lee makes demands - "you better tell me the truth, son." And when he gets the truth, one thing leads to another and he finds himself in jail. When he threatens "make me beat it out of you," I understand that "supply and demand" can also mean "getting an ass-kicking from Amos Lee."

"Lullaby" - so, so intriguingly creepy. Between this and "Truth," you get a completely different side of Lee. Song comprehension is never a science, but this sounds like a story of someone killing his wife or girlfriend and planning his escape with her kids. Lee sings "and my parents will never know their little boy is such a fiend." Well, neither would I, if he hadn't told me.