Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

He has a very 90’s sound to his voice, that scratching to smooth note ability. The lyrics of lost love and confusion are relatable, with a nice solid slide guitar in the background. Here’s a line from the chorus of Ida Lupino that summarizes his view: “Oh your lights and your halo have been boarded away.” He has an understanding of humanity as a mass of thinkers who haven’t been thinking. I wouldn’t label his bitter since there are lines of hope within his pieces, but there is a definite sense of acquired rage.

The bass is slight, it’s not overpowering so you can hear his words clearly. Along with the 90’s voice he also has that slur thing going on, drippy dreamy words you have to listen to a few times to catch. When he gets louder though he loses his force and that scratchy quality becomes a negative side effect instead of a positive one, for example like in the song The Immigrant. When he gets to the chorus there is a bit too much unorganized noise going on. It’s not as tight as the first two tracks.

The thing that caught my eye right away, before I even popped in the disk, was the title of his fourth song, Of Human Bondage. I was impressed by the philosophical reference, and he was immediately labeled in my mind as an intellectual. The song is based on William Somerset Maugham’s book about a young boys struggle to learn about the world and himself all alone. It seems quite fitting for Browne’s style, a loner set out to travel alone. Let me give you a taste of what he means. Here is a line from the chorus of that song: “We are animals swimming in a cesspool of counter claims.” He’s profound with an older wisdom, an experienced mindset.

My overall impression was that this is a bit dramatic, like Browne is trying too hard to show his suffering through a few catchy riffs. It has a Goo Goo Dolls quality in there somewhere, if it was tuned a little more into something solid and slightly more predictable. I do have to say though: not many people can pull off the whammy bar as an eerie kind of sound, instead of just some screeching in the background. He has that ability. That will help put him over the edge and past originality. I am hopeful towards to next album. I have a feeling his band must be really great live too.