Issue 45 | November/December 2004 Tim Lee After making his mark two decades back in the legendary Windbreakers with fellow pop practitioner Bobby Sutliffe, and playing in support of such notables as Let's Active, The Swimming Pool Qs and the Marti Jones Band, Tim lee has a fairly impressive standard to live up to when it comes to pursuing his solo sojourns. Fortunately, he's more than up to the task, as is borne out by his three previous individual efforts. Still, No Discretion is his boldest statement yet, an irrepressible, no-holds-barred set of songs that finds lee in full rock 'n' roll regalia. Recorded across six studios with sixteen musicians over the span of eighteen months, the album as a whole proves remarkably consistent and unfailingly emphatic. That's evident at the outset, beginning with the all-out assault of the opening track, "I Wanna Believe," and further verified through the driving ferocity of "Across the Tracks," "No Discretion," "Things Get Broken" and "Keep Me Down," ironically recalling the deadpan cool of Lou Reed. Lee tempers his swagger with the occasional ballad -- notably the weary "New Hope" and the pensive closer "The End of Time" -- but on the whole, the pace rarely slackens. A bold stroke for the less Tim-id Lee. --Lee Zimmerman |