Daily Download: “Walter Reed,” Michael Penn

Michael Penn is often overshadowed by his wife, Aimee Mann, partly because their sensibilities and music are so similar. But while Penn sometimes lapses into middle-aged singer-songwritery wordiness, and although his work is rarely quite as good as his wife’s, he deserves better than to be thought of as the second-rate husband. This is the only track I’ve heard off of his upcoming “Mr. Hollywood Jr. — 1949,” (which is, reportedly, a concept record, just like Mann’s new “The Forgotten Arm”), and this is Penn at his smooth, sophisticated best.