Joey Cape - doesn't play well with others

Although the punk-rocker-finding-his-roots-with-a solo-acoustic-release is rapidly becoming a well worn route, to his credit Lagwagon's frontman Joey Cape has been forging his own path for quite some time now, and this is his second solo full length. I?m not really a fan of Lagwagon so the punk roots are lost on me here - I might be a little more excited if it was, say, Milo from The Descendents going it alone. So let's take it on face value, an acoustic singer-songwriter album. It?s not a plain sailing sunny feel-good album as I might have expected and Joey demonstrates a range of emotions across these twelve tracks. The first thing that strikes me is how fragile his voice is. It is often laden with emotion, at times sounding like he is going to break down, other times fading into a whisper at the end of a line, somehow reminding me of Cat Stevens. But he always manages to pull back from the brink, knocking out some heartfelt tunes rather than pumping out some twee pseudo-emotional garbage, good thing really! Most of the tracks have a melancholic air and this is reflected by a quick glance at some of the song titles - "I'm Not Gonna Save You", "A Song For The Missing" or "I Always Knew This Was Going To End Badly", but there is also happiness and hope, with Joey's daughter lending her voice to "It's Always Sunny" and the jaunty "The Fish Rots From The Head-Case Down" shows a more optimistic upbeat side to Cape. Not party music by any means, but this would make a great soundtrack for one of those long and lonesome journeys on rail or road, rolling through the night. (powered by www.http://www.massmovement.co.uk///////
)