 Mike Bennett Tim Lee -- Concrete Dog (Fundamental): The former Windbreaker keeps chugging along with his muscular melodic rock. Lee is a contemporary of Steve Wynn's, and his music is like a Southern variation on where Wynn has taken his heady mix of roots rock and Velvet Underground inspired tunesmithing. Lee's pop roots show a bit more readily than Wynn's, and he's not as creative a lyricist (Lee is simple and direct -- nothing wrong with that) -- those are the biggest differences I can discern. Lee's band is terrific, fueled by the superb drumming of former Superdrag skin pounder Don Coffey, Jr.. You can always count on Lee to write good songs, and I think he's raised his considerable game a little bit higher to keep up with the quality of his players. The result is what may be his best solo disc yet, full of passion and hooks. A great example of this is "Threw It All Away", which is grounded in a intently strummed rhythm guitar riff. Lee chronicles a man in decline: "went to the halls of knowledge/but I could not stay/but I threw it all away." The guitar interplay between Lee and Greg Horne is thrilling. I could hear Eleventh Dream Day taking a crack at this. There are plenty more barn burners where this comes from. These are balanced by tracks like "Half-Life", which show that Lee can still pen drawling pop on par with contemporaries like Peter Holsapple. Even better is "Here One Minute", which has such an automatically appealing melody, nice lines like "she made a mark on me/like a bad tattoo," and a memorable chorus. It's really hard to find anything wrong with this disc -- okay, maybe Tim could find a way to get his wife, Susan Bauer Lee (bass), some vocal turns, since I like what I hear of her voice on here. Other than that, I'd just say keep up the good work. fundamentalrecords.com |