Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

When record execs sit around a table and decide how they're going to release a CD, they're going to be laboring under a conundrum. There is an element of conventional wisdom that says that an artist need to put all of their good tracks in the front of the CD because the average listener only listens to the first 20 minutes or so, and then goes onto other pursuits. There is another element of conventional wisdom, however, that holds that if a CD isn't at least 40 minutes long, the buyer feels ripped off. If the first is true, how do they notice the second, I ask you? GUINEA PIGS, the latest CD by Saul Zonana, solves at least one of those problems.  Zonana puts all of his good tracks up front. All 10 of them, on a 10 track CD.

I don't know much about Zonana at all. I was having trouble getting his website to load, either as a result of my crappy web provider or my crappy computer, I'm not sure which. All I know about him is that 1) he's released other CDs; 2) he is opening for Southside Johnny in October somewhere in Connecticut (and THAT would be a show worth driving to!); and 3) he is an absolute, bonafide master at writing deceptively simple power pop tunes. At just under 33 minutes, GUINEA PIGS leaves you begging for more, but that's what the replay button is for. You'll use it on this one, I guarantee.

Zonana is from the Adam Schmitt / Michael Penn school of pop song composition. Nice little power chord changeups, accessible vocals, and arrangements that leave the kitchen sink out but have nice little additions here and there that are more lagniappe than overfilling gourmet desserts. And his lyrics...they don't stray into Tom Waits/Johnny Dowd territory by any means, but Zonana still has an interesting take on things. "Bette," which has been released as a single, is about an, uh, inflatable doll that is the singer's rebound punch. There are also songs about death ("I'm Not Afraid to Die,"  "Joel's Song") alienation ("Riled") and, ultimately, hope ("So Much Better"). Zonana is such a skilled tunesmith, however, that when his music strays into dark territory, as it so frequently does, it often gets by the listener, who is caught up in poppy guitar hooks and changeups. The relative simplicity of the arrangements, occasioned by the lineup --- guitars, bass, drums and keyboards --- often obscures what's going on lyrically. At least at first. This guy is deep. And occasionally scary.

Add Zonana's current obscurity to the long list of symptoms of what is wrong with the music industry. Any one of the 10 tracks on GUINEA PIGS would, and should, be all over your radio in a perfect world.