knows his music is all right. He knows because he's got razor sharp hooks, air-tight choruses, and the Though his former band, , wasn't the next (both were managed by ), plays with the big boys right out of the gate on his first solo: deftly welds heavy licks to hard on a level with world-dominators . Both beatboxes and muscle cars blasted and But the artist's gentle melodic touch always surprises. Underneath the suburban- -sludge pops . doesn't fake sympathy for the working class; he wants to be rich and he wants young girls. On and its near-perfect follow-up, , he knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. [The U.K. edition on adds bonus tracks.] ~ Doug Stone