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By: Dennis Cook
Opener "I Got A Thing For You" slow walks into the room, Cole Porter on a tango tangent, clarinet and accordion (courtesy of gifted multi-instrumentalist Brad Gordon) interlocked with a soft come-on that just works so well. The title cut follows, a gentle breakbeat driven bit of quality LA style pop (think Aimee Mann, Jude, Chris Stills) with slinky electric guitar and even more oozing sensuality in Jim Bianco's smoky voice (a cousin to under-sung singer-songwriter Tom Freund), bolstered by winning harmonies and excellent production by Gordon and Bianco, which holds true throughout. There's a lot of colors on Sing (CD Baby Inc.), and most of them bleed together in pretty well. There's real skill to good pop music, and despite what we're told "pop" is these days (I'm scowling at you Maroon 5...) if you use XTC, The Beatles and The Kinks as your yardstick then most modern pop fails. Lay those measures down next to Sing and Bianco does just fine. There's heartbreak ("Painkiller"), twisty David Byrne-esque mélange ("Never Again"), summery jaunts ("If Your Mama Knew," "Get On") and Randy Newman-level tenderness ("Belong"). There's no stumbling or bum notes, which immediately sets this apart from most stuff in the same category. Sing is nicely done in all respects. If the mainstream sounded like this I might actually use my radio.
JamBase | Los Angeles
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