Deeply felt piano and guitar pop

This second full-length release from Jason Karaban is a heavier affair than his 2006 debut, Doomed to Make Choices, with emotions that run deeper and find fuller expression in the instrumental backings. There’s a strong dose of turn-of-the-70s British rock in Karaban’s piano, including the dark melancholy of Badfinger and an introspective weightiness that suggests Elton John’s early albums. There are carefully arrange vocal harmonies that will remind you of the Beach Boys, Zombies or America, and studio hooks that recall pop favorites like Mark Everett’s A Man Called (E) and Nick Heyward’s From Monday to Sunday. The title track seeks salvation with piano lines that plod as determinedly as the twelve steps of a recovering alcoholic, but the tone lightens and warms alongside a George Harrison-styled guitar solo on “Middle of the Storm.” There’s tremendous variety among the tracks, including contemporary pop, modern rock, acoustic guitar ballads and West Coast studio production pop. The range might give some listeners stylistic whiplash, but the segues are well crafted, and with so many people shuffling through their music libraries, the individual songs will induce toe tapping, head bobbing and even some deep thinking. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Listen to “Sobriety Kills”
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