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Non-Prog CD Reviews

The Mailman’s Children Spiders We Eat Review by Gary Hill I suppose you could call this alternative rock, but there is quite a bit going on here. This is very strong start to finish. It’s got plenty of hooks and great songwriting. I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys good mainstream rock music. I’d love to hear more from this act. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2015 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Ride in Your Mind Starting somewhat mellow, the alternative rock vibes on this are quite dramatic and powerful. The cut gains intensity as it continues. While the musical tapestry is rich and dense, the vocals really sell this more than the music does. That’s a real tribute to the emotion expressed by the voice.

Private Room Inspired by the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting, the lyrics on this are suitably twisted. The song itself, though, is pretty mainstream hard rock. I really love this song. It’s got so much oomph to the mix.

Off to Work The introduction on this suffers a bit from overproduction. It drops to a folk rock styled alternative piece from there, though. As it powers up there are hints of progressive rock and reggae in the mix. This is another powerhouse tune, really.

Humility Somehow this has the most mainstream hook-laden sound of the whole set. It’s definitely the most accessible cut here. Yet, it loses none of the alternative rock edge in the process. This is another great tune on a set full of them.

Ride in Your Mind (acoustic) As you can gather from the title and parenthetical, this is an acoustic version of the opener. Although I think the full arrangement rendition is stronger, it still works well in this format.

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