Oh, if only the rest of you bastards posted reviews.....

Ada Popovic – Oh, if only the music were as hot as the artist.  Listen, she has great guitar chops and a fine voice.  What she doesn’t have is a producer who gets the hell out of the way.  He/She pushes the horns way out front on every damn track which is a nuisance.  The high tuned drums, the too loud backing vocals, oy...the whole thing’s glossier than a freaking Phil Collins album.  Lock her in a studio with nothing but a 3-piece band and some analog tape and maybe she smokes. Except for the cover, her talents are wasted here.  1.5 stars

Rodriguez – Oh, if only the music were as interesting as the story.  I was glad to get to hear this after seeing a few articles about this guy.  The best tracks sound like a combination of second rate Dylan and Neil Diamond, and the worse track “Gomorrah” made me cringe.  “Sugar Man” is the best of the bunch, and even that would have been left off any of Dylan’s 60’s & 70’s albums. 2.5 stars

The Boys – Oh, if only the rest of this month’s selections were as entertaining as this slice of pop punk.  I don’t know a thing about these guys, but they’re fun, they keep it simple and there’s just a touch of that late 70’s English snotty-ness which I find so endearing.  Some of the vocals, particularly “Independent Girl” sound eerily like 70’s John Lennon.  Despite its age, most of it still sounds fresh. 4 stars

The The – Oh, if only the music were as entertaining as the submitter’s love life at the time this was recorded.  Like the women he was banging in 1986, some of it is patently offensive and the rest is nothing to be proud of.  Sound is incredibly dated, 5 seconds in, you know exactly when this was recorded.  Sounds no different from Scritti Politti, The Thompson Twins or numerous other 80’s synth pop bands left for obscurity. 2 stars

Marshall Tucker Band – Oh, if only he had included “Fire on the Mountain” and “Searching For a Rainbow”.  While lumped in as part of the “Southern Rock” boom of the late 70’s early 80’s, the very idea of “southern rock” is silly.  MTB sounds nothing like Skynyrd, who sound nothing like the Allmans, who sound nothing like .38 Special, etc.  MTB was a traditional country band that successfully incorporated a little rock and some pop sensibility into their sound.  Besides the glaring omissions (seriously, no “Heard it In a Love Song”??), a nice collection and probably all the MTB I’ll ever need.