Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I would have wanted to like JOSTLE IT! By Von Robinson & His Own Universe. The CD is well-recorded; you can tell everyone put a lot of time into the five tracks that make up this EP, so it’s not just a bunch of mooks thrashing away. They’ve got a nice, shimmery jangly sound that kind of reminds me of the folk rock era of the 1960s, not so much The Byrds but the groups that came after. Not a bad place to be, all told.

The problem is the material. It’s not awful, just a little too close to boring. The lyrics are interesting, especially on “XXXtraordinary Rendition,” bizarre even, and considering the…well, the wimpiness of the vocals, they're kind of off-putting. Which may be the point, and I'm missing it. Badly. My problem is that I listened to this CD four times and not one track stuck in my head afterward. When that happens, I figure there’s a problem.

Von Robinson is out of New York, and actually seems to be doing okay, so it’s possible that their recorded work doesn't adequately represent their sound. In this market, however, they're going to have to make their material distinguish itself from what else, and who else, is out there. They need, in other words, to JOSTLE IT! a lot more.