The music scene for the second half of the nineties has belonged
\nto the women, what with the emergence of artists like Celine Dion,
\nBrandy, Sheryl Crow, Jewel, and Lauryn Hill. (I could mention the
\nSpice Girls, but I blinked and they were gone.) Thanks to this
\nemergence, we are getting plenty of female artists coming onto the
\nscene, and I say bring them on!<\/p>\n
Enter Kelley Ryan and her group the Astropuppees. Their new CD,
\nPet<\/i>, is an energetic piece of pop-rock. If this is what you
\nare looking for, then you will be immediately sucked into the first
\nsong called “15 Seconds”. This song recalls a rocking Go-Go’s tune,
\nbut with better guitar playing. I like the way Ryan makes her
\nguitar sound a keyboard on the instrumental break.<\/p>\n
The second song slows the tempo a bit for “Angelica” which adds
\na harmonica to the mix for a slight folky sound. But we are back to
\na full rock sound on the infectious “Woo Hoo Hoo”. However, the
\ncatchiness of this track hides the cynicism in the lyrics.<\/p>\n
The rest of
\nPet<\/i> follows a similar pattern of solid-rockers and midtempo
\nfolk-rockers. Bassist Maureen Serrao takes the vocals on the ballad
\n“Galaxy”, which she co-wrote with Ryan, showing that the band has
\ntwo capable vocalists.<\/p>\n
Ryan and Serrao provide nice harmonies on “Crowded House”, a
\nsong written by top-notch songwriter Marshall Crenshaw (along with
\nLeRoy Preston), that is certainly a highlight on
\nPet<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Ryan produced
\nPet<\/i>, and I do not know if she has other producing credits,
\nbut she certainly does a sterling job, getting some interesting
\nguitar sounds, especially on “Olive 5”, and a crisp sound out of
\ndrummer John Oreshnick throughout the CD. I would have guessed that
\nsomeone like veteran producer Don Dixon (who appears occasionally
\non the CD) produced this.<\/p>\n
\nPet<\/i> does run out of steam toward the end. “Any Other Day”
\nand “It’s Alright” sound like weaker versions of earlier songs. A
\nflash of punk called “Speed Walking College Girls” will wake up the
\nlistener, but it is just filler. And while “Sleep” is sonically
\ninteresting, I was hoping it would be a stronger song
\nlyrically.<\/p>\n
The Astropuppees have more than a few potential hits on
\nPet<\/i> as there are plenty of appealing, thoughtful songs here.
\nIt will be interesting to hear what this band will come up with
\nnext, as Ryan continues to develop as a songwriter. Fans of Sheryl
\nCrow (as well as any pop rock fans) should really like this CD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":25163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6188],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36368","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-astropuppees","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36368"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36368"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}