Category: Pop (Page 91 of 216)

Erin McCarley: Love, Save the Empty

February 6, 2009 /

How does a solo artist stand out in a crowd these days? It’s not an easy task, due to the sheer number of singers and/or songwriters that seem to be on every street corner no matter what part of the globe you’re on. To help listeners and fans find you, it helps to be quite talented, and that can be said about newcomer Erin McCarley and her debut album, Love, Save the Empty. McCarley has the kind of radio-ready sound that is sure to please the “One Tree Hill” producers and fan base alike, but this sultry vocalist writes songs that run deeper and darker than that. What you’ll hear on most of Love, Save the Empty is a gloomy undertone, and McCarley openly admits that she is most inspired when sad. But that dark feel, akin to maybe Fiona Apple or Alanis Morissette, is also tempered by an accessible yet sophisticated side to her songwriting – think Aimee Mann or Luscious Jackson’s Jill Cunniff. And while McCarley does have a nice set of songs to debut to the world, the wispy Hotel Café vocal thing does get a bit tiresome after a while. It’s also what is selling right now, so you can’t fault the artist or label. Among 11 great pieces, the ones you should keep coming back to are the opening single, “Pony (It’s OK),” the peppy “Sleep Walking” and the beautifully melancholy “Lovesick Mistake,” easily the album’s best track. (Universal Republic 2009)

Erin McCarley MySpace Page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Rock, Rock Babes

Daniel Park: These Illusions

February 6, 2009 /

I’m sure Daniel Park probably has a legion of fans somewhere. He’s got a professional look, his voice is pleasant, and his songs are the sorts of creations you could imagine hearing on your local college radio station. The problem is that he doesn’t seem to have anything beyond just being pleasant. So many of the tracks here – especially the first three – have an easygoing quality to them that never becomes fully defined. Park doesn’t seem to care about memorable melodies as much as just sounding soothing. How many mid-tempo, acoustic-based tracks can you sit through before you get itchy? When he goes for something more upbeat (“Shipwrecked”), he still undermines himself with the nice guy factor. Elsewhere, he’s just noodling around aimlessly (“Prelude”) or trying to sound Important (“DTR”), but remains busy going nowhere because of his mere pleasantness. You hear one song on here, and you’ve pretty much heard them all. It gets boring fast, quite frankly, but again this is the sort of stuff that hits are often made of, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him getting something bigger from this release. (self-released)

Daniel Park MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop

Dana Falconberry: Oh Skies of Grey

February 5, 2009 /

Sometimes new artists come out of nowhere to brighten our day and sometimes they help by painting beautiful images in our heads with their music – be they bright, or be they cloudy and drizzly as Dana Falconberry does on the aptly titled Oh Skies of Grey. Falconberry is an Austin Texas singer/songwriter who moved from her hometown of Dearborn, Michigan a few years back and has been hanging around the camps of Patty Griffin, Peter Buck and Alejandro Escovedo. What you’ll hear in Falconberry is equal parts sultry folkster (Griffin), rainy day alt-popster (Suzanne Vega), and bombastic arrangements that give her songs incredible character (think Laura Veirs). All of this is wrapped up in a neat package and delivered with authority on Oh Skies of Grey, and it’s the kind of moody fare that you stick in your CD player and forget about for a while, or at least until the sun starts peaking through. The best tracks among 12 varied and well-crafted ones are the shuffling, hauntingly sexy “Love Will Never Leave You Alone” and “Flourescent” as well as the unofficial title track, “Blue Umbrella.” (2:59)

Dana Falconberry MySpace Page

Alternative, Ambient, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Folk, Pop, Rock, Rock Babes

Coby Brown: Stars & Curses

February 3, 2009 /

Building a career as an indie musician is hard enough without having to deal with serious real-world issues – like, say, being diagnosed with cancer – but those are exactly the cards that Coby Brown was dealt a few years ago. To his credit, Brown took his diagnosis in stride, releasing an EP (2007’s Time Is Now) that whetted appetites for his first full-length, Stars & Curses. Happily, Curses delivers on Time’s promise, offering up 10 pleasantly polished cuts of gently woven singer/songwriter pop goodness. Brown’s style isn’t showy – he leads off with the somber-to-a-fault “4th of July,” and on a number of tracks, he drenches his vocals in wide swaths of reverb – but the songs speak for themselves. Fans of artists like Josh Rouse and Josh Ritter will find a lot to love here; Brown’s voice is strong and slightly reedy around the edges, giving the music just enough homespun edge to keep things grounded. Will Golden’s production is another strong selling point – in more commercially oriented hands, tracks like the widescreen “Daylight” and yearning “Madman” would aim for glossy bombast rather than honest emotion. Nothing on Stars & Curses grabs you by the collar right off the bat, but give it time – it’ll grow on you and refuse to let go. (self-released 2009)

Coby Brown MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop

Dylan Connor: Breakaway Republic

January 30, 2009 /

A Latin teacher turned indie pop road dog, Dylan Connor sounds like a vocal cross between David Mead and Guster’s Ryan Miller, and fans of both acts should find something to love in Connor’s latest release, Breakaway Republic. Eleven tracks of tightly written pop-rock with a classic feel and a dash of postmodern humor, Republic isn’t going to win any awards for flashiness, but it’s still probably one of the sturdier collections you’re liable to hear from an unsigned singer/songwriter this year, and it’s to Connor’s extreme credit that he manages to avoid focusing on the tried-and-true boy/girl dynamic for at least part of the album, spreading his focus to less-trod subject matter like bomb shelters (“Blood Like Fire”) and mortality (“Had a Little Dream”). It’s to Republic’s extreme credit, too, because when Connor does focus on relationships, the results can be a little weak. Case in point: “I Want Everybody to Know,” which tells the story of the night Connor set aside front-row passes at one of his gigs for a girl, only to watch her making out with another guy, and makes all three of them seem pretty shallow and annoying. Still, on balance, Republic is an easy listen, and even at his worst, Connor displays a tighter grasp of songcraft than your average guitarslinger. A worthy diversion for fans of the genre. (self-released 2008)

Dylan Connor MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Power Pop

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