Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I've got a rock 'n' roll album inside of me. I can't sing, and I can't play any instrument well enough to clear a room out (you have to play well enough to get people into a room before you can play poorly enough to clear 'em out), but I can write some songs, and one day, I'm gonna find someone with more time and talent than sense and get it out of my system.

I'm pretty certain that music is not Peter Trappen's main gig. His biographical info is somewhat sparse; from what I've been able to gather he may be a web designer, and a good one at that. FREQUENT SEA, his only CD so far, is his effort to get the songs out, and I'm jealous; the result isn't half bad at all.

By Trappen's account, the songs on FREQUENT SEA were not written as a cohesive unit, or rock opera. As the project came together, however, he noticed a common thread connecting the different tracks into a common story along the lines of a boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy wins-girl. Trappen's influences are fairly obvious, and not all that unusual for a middle-aged dude who's busily fulfilling a lifelong dream. There's a light early to-mid period Rolling Stones glaze with other rockers from the '60s and '70s over the entire CD. You got 'cher Deep Purple ("Roll the Dice"), Santana ("Voodoo Woman"), psychedelic, ala Quicksilver, with a little Tom Verlaine-type guitar sculpture thrown in ("Rainbow Child"), Firefall ("Babylon," "Anywhere You Stay"), a bit of Byrds ("Blind," "Melissa"), Marty Balin-era Jefferson Starship ("You're Breakin' My Heart," "I'm the Fireman"), and James Gang-period Joe Walsh ("Tomorrow Seems So Long"). While the influences are fairly obvious on some tracks, however, they are not slavish imitations. And while Trappen's vocals are somewhat indistinguishable, his guitar lines are up to the material. Trappen has a fine sense of what he is capable of, and what exceeds his grasp. He challenges himself, but knows when to say when. When Trappen says on the jacket that FREQUENT SEA is guaranteed to withstand repeated listening, he does so with the knowledge no one is going to ask for their money back. There's nothing jarring or unpleasant here at all, and it's fun to play "Spot the Influence." There are interesting surprises here and there, like the use of vibes on "Voodoo Woman" and the sampling of NASA transmissions on "The Tower of Babylon," ala The Byrds' "Lear Jet."

FREQUENT SEA is an interesting work, one that will take older listeners back a bit while still sounding new. Radio programmers have been griping of late that the record industry needs to start aiming at an older audience. Trappen pulls off the trick of making his material sound familiar, without sounding stale. If he's got another one inside of him I'd like to hear it.