Pete Yorn- Pete Yorn

Hailing from Montville, New Jersey Pete Yorn is back on the scene with his brand new self titled album. The follow up to last year's Back and Fourth finds the singer-songwriter deviating a little bit from his current musical style with much more evident electric guitar riffs and Pete's familiar and deep vocal style settling deep inside your consciousness while hearing it.

The album starts off strong with "Precious Stone", the disc's first single. A breezy, calm acoustic flavored track that is the type of song you might hear in a coffeehouse on a Saturday afternoon in the city. "Rock Crowd" is an upbeat, melodic tune with a soaring chorus that is sure to have you singing along as well while hearing it. "Velcro Shoes" starts out with some electric guitar riffs before delving into a bevy of other instrumentation such as harmonica which makes for a diverse and entertaining listen. "Badman" is a simple, electric influenced number that has alot of promise to it, but falls flat in the end. "The Chase" aims to pick up the slack with some standard issue acoustic guitar riffs that blend in nicely with the electric guitars.

The album's second half features track such as "Always", a straight forward rocker that is harder edged than the other acoustic based tracks found on the album, and is a swift departure from the sound that he regularly dabbles in. "Stronger Than" returns to Pete's acoustic style rock, very reminiscent of some of the songs featured on his debut album, "Musicforhtemorningafter", released in 2001. "Future Life" begins to wrap up the album with some pleasant sounding guitar rhythms and Pete's smoky, deep voice greeting you at first listen. "Wheels" closes everything out on a quiet note with a simple, strumming acoustic guitar melody that brings the album to a close sounding much like his prior studio efforts have ended. Pete Yorn's prior studio albums followed a linear, cohesive pattern with his first three studio efforts themed around different parts of the day: "Musicforthemorningafter", "Day I Forgot", and "Nightcrawler". His fourth disc titled "Back and Fourth" used an alternate spelling of forth to indicate that this was his fourth album. This album however, doesn't follow any type of pattern whatsoever, and instead aims to return Pete back to his singer-songwriter roots, but not all songs reach the mark that his prior compositions were able to do.

In retrospect, a solid and passable effort from Pete Yorn who tries his hardest to return to his original sound that first got him recognized, but he's somewhat inconsistent this time around with only a few tracks coming close to the type of songs that we normally associate him with.

                                                                                                                                  Album Score: 2.5/5

Track Listing:

1. Precious Stone
2. Rock Crowd
3. Velcro Shoes
4. Paradise Cove I
5. Badman
6. The Chase
7. Sans Fear
8. Always
9. Stronger Than
10. Future Life
11. Wheels