I dig this CD. Barbeau seems to be willing to take more risks than your average rocky-singer-songwriter type, and those risks pay off in a CD full of interesting, zippy, stylized pop songs. He's definitely got the "sing like an Englishman" thing going on here and there (he's from Sacramento, CA), but it's not nearly as annoying as it could be. On a couple of tracks, like "Dazzle Girl" and "Once in Royal David City" he even cops the full on Bowie attitude schtick, and it pretty much works. There's also something vaguely Michael Penn-sounding about most of these tunes, although I can't imagine anyone consciously trying to sound like Michael Penn, so it's probably just a coincidence.

Barbeau's lyrics are pretty entertaining, and just the song titles should give you the hintthat these aren't tunes taken from the Singer-Songwriter Clone book: "Creepy Tray", "Cockroach Song", "Please Sir I've Got a Wooden Leg", "Suicide Toad", "YumYum Bubblegum" and so on. There's a playfulness in these songs that I really like, and even when he's getting into potentially sappyterritory Barbeau manages to maintain a sense of humour and goofiness that keeps the songsfrom wearing thin. Crunchy guitars, fuzzy bass and snappy drums help round things out, making for an impressive and memorable batch of pop songs.