Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Glen Reynolds has been around the Texas music scene for a bit, and he is no stranger to the recording process, having created a couple of projects with the band Chomsky and one with Liquid 3. IN BETWEEN DAYS is Reynold’s first solo project, recorded over a period of roughly 18 months. It is an interesting project, full of checks and balances, wherein Reynolds, seeking perhaps to establish himself as a singer songwriter, nails the latter while needing some work on the former.

Let’s get the criticism out of the way: Reynolds vocals are a bit thin, a bit weak, and the result, at least on the material on IN BETWEEN DAYS, has him struggling to hit the high notes a bit too many times to make for an entirely comfortable listening experience, at least consistently. As far as the songwriting goes…Reynolds, with composing and recording partner Pete Young (who handles drum chores on IN BETWEEN DAYS), nails it on practically every track. Reynolds, in fact, really hits his stride about midway through IN BETWEEN DAYS, beginning with “I Feel Love” and continuing with “ ’M’ Is For Missing” and “You’re Not Alone.” On some of the other tracks, exuberance gets in the way; “Lost Souls,” an uneasy tune that slowly creates a mood that all is not right, is all but ruined in the middle with some electronic haunted house noodling that sounds as if it was thrown in just in case you didn’t get what was going on from the music. “Monument,” for its part, goes on a bit too long. The core compositions, however, reveal that Reynolds and Young have a good sense of the components that make up a good and true song, an art which appears to be on the wane.

The weaknesses on IN BETWEEN DAYS are outweighed by the considerable strengths which Reynolds exhibits. There isn’t anything on here that could not be fixed with a bit of tinkering; and if there’s a singer out there who is looking for some great songs to record, they need to check out IN BETWEEN DAYS. There’s a wealth of material here.