Hot Rod Circuit
Reality’s Coming Through (Vagrant)
by Jessica Parker
Though Hot Rod Circuit‘s last album, Sorry About Tomorrow, was charming and sweetly emotive, Reality’s Coming Through marks the band’s foray into more mature pop-rock. Blending today’s pop sensibilities with an early ’90s rock sound, the album experiments with some songs that come off as adult-contemporary and others as college rock. The songs, like lead singer Andy Jackson’s voice, are uneven, but this isn’t necessarily bad. Jackson sings with an angry, throaty yell in the angst-filled “Fear the Sound;” he happily bops in “Cheap Trick” (a definite ode to the band); and he twangs for the alt-country number, “The Best You Ever Knew.” Jackson and the entire band come across best in the balladish “Save You,” which is most reminiscent of their earlier work.
(www.vagrant.com)