I have no idea what I'm listening to.  Is this rock?  Is this attempting to be complex and synthetic or is it's aim something else?  I find myself listening, trapped between a fine line of admiration and loathing for this album.  By the end of track 1, "Ice On a River," I have no idea what to expect from the rest of the album.  It was part keyboard-rock and part contemporary pop.  The music, despite being quite light in nature, was heavily layered.  Lyrical structures are mostly predictable, yet the song demonstrates a wonderfully peculiar breakdown.  

Track 2, "Ruby Red Eyes," definitively sounds like something my parents listened to, cruising the highway on the way to the local ice-skating rink or hang-gliding arena or whatever kids in those days did.  I don't think there's any such thing as a hang-gliding arena.  Anyhow, there is no correlation between tracks 1 and 2. Both songs have entirely different styles and what I thought were different singers before looking at the credits.  

Again, I ask "What the hell is this?"  On to the next track.

By the time I'm writing this sentence, I've listened to tracks 3-9 all the way through and I'm a little bit more familiar with what it is that Reed Dickinson is trying to do.
This album is pure modern light rock.  If you're tired of the gnashing guitars and angsty lyrics that highlight so much music, you might actually like this album.  Even when Dickinson sings of the "Devil Doll," an evil blonde woman, it sounds like he might as well be telling everyone "dancing is fun!" repeatedly.  It's uplifting and simple.  The music is made with a pop sensibility and variation that some albums lack.  As a novelty, this album is fun because of this variation.  Reed goes from a kind of techno-rock to light reggae to light jazz to anything.  None are perfected but each is addressed well enough to be recognizable.  Most songs on this album are too light and "vintage-sounding" to be considered by fans of any band that came out after 2000...and by "most" i mean "all."  

Simple songwriting, blatant appeal to the pop audience, and strange variation between tracks highlight this album.  Not for everyone.  Due to the lightness of this album and it's odd appeal, I recommend you listen to it yourself and don't let me be your entire basis for judging it. 

Sure to please: Light contemporary rock fans.  Anybody who thinks modern rock is all about Satan.  "Happy" people. 

Sure to disappoint: Me.  Metal fans.  Rap fans.  Lots of other people who like angst in their music.
 

Visit the Official website.

Listen to samples and Purchase this CD online

Fanspeak removed due to spam and abuse