Let's focus on what Josh Rouse is: a brilliantly eccentric and refreshingly original songwriter, and not what he'll likely never be: a mainstream success. What Rouse has done on the excellent, but not quite a classic "1972," is make a Josh Rouse record that sounds like it was recorded the year of his birth. The album has plenty of decent tunes to recommend it, particularly the soulful title track (in which he cites Carole King in the second line), "Sunshine," "Slaveship," the ace lovesong "Under Your Charms," and the amazingly spiritual "Sparrows Over Birmingham."Through four albums, Josh Rouse has been a uniformly excellent songwriter. Those who bemoan his lack of mainstream success are missing the point. If he ever did shoot for a larger audience, he'd lose what it is that make his music so special.