Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I can’t say I had high expectations when picking up Surprise Party, the first CD by a relatively unknown Bob Burger. No surprises here; a complete waste of an hour. Well, maybe not a complete waste, but pretty close.

This Tom Petty “wanna be” has many songs that echo Learning To Fly (only not as good or catchy). Whether intentionally or not, his voice and construction of melodies bring Petty to mind. Say Hello to Goodbye, is a flagrant example and arguably the best song on the album, although maybe that’s not saying much on an album loaded with duds.

Almost Doesn’t Count kicks off the album with a mysterious clash of electric and acoustic guitar with Burger’s raw voice. One of Ours sounds like the backdrop of an episode of One Tree Hill or The OC. Is that a compliment? I’ll let you decide.

In a way, I almost feel bad for Burger. It’s almost like he’s fifteen years too late, with a soft rock sound that would have thrived with the one hit wonders of the 90s. Fairground, Crashing Down and Need to Bleed make me feel like I entered a time warp back to 1995.

This raw, folk rocker just doesn’t make the cut for me. With a song like Sleep of the Wicked, with ridiculous talking in the background scattered throughout intermittently, it’s hard for me to recover.

I can’t be so harsh on Burger, however. I must admit, I half-like some songs. There’s just something missing for me to give them the full thumbs up. Burger is going need to come up with something special next time around if he wants a career in music, otherwise he may end up flipping burgers. He plays a mean acoustic guitar though, I’ll give him that.