ACTRESS

A bit of trivia, something I always love to uncover when discovering new music: Colin Peterik, the lead singer and keyboardist for Lobster Newberg is the son of former Ides of March ("Vehicle") and Survivor ("Eye of the Tiger") guitarist Jim Peterik. Neither here nor there I suppose, but it helps explain the young lad's knowledge of progressive arrangements and general ability to craft a pop tune with some meaty hooks.

Lobster Newberg has released a couple albums as near as I can tell, both of them self- released and generally impossible to find. In fact, I'm still looking for the first one and may have to resort to the dreaded iTunes. This isn't progressive music per se, but the band does have a penchant for taking what are basically pop tunes and embellishing them with horns, keyboards and some bouncy bass bits to give the impression of something with more substance than it probably really has.

A few tracks stand out among the fluff: "Lost" for example has a catchy keyboard sequence that shifts and moves around the choppy vocals and chameleon-like guitar riffs that weave in and around Peterik's stilted keyboard playing; and "Bed" is a really smooth, seductive pop song that reminds me of Sigmund Snopek III's epic release "WisconInsane", which also means it pays some tribute to the eclectic stylings of Elvis Costello at his finest. If that's your kind of music you're bound to find something to like here.

And "Silver Cities" would probably be considered a decent prog tune if it appeared on a Gentle Giant or even Fripp album instead of an indie release. If you close your eyes and don't look at the album cover you can maybe even convince yourself to take it seriously.

Otherwise this is good pop but nothing to go gaga over. Peterik at least has some promise as a songwriter and may yet find some success if he can manage to surround himself with equal talent and find a label willing to put a little money into development and promotion. Hope so for his sake, but in the meantime the band and this album will wallow in obscurity. Help a brother out and pick this one up if you come across it; supporting artistic talent is what music appreciation is all about after all. Three stars just because these songs make me happy.

peace