JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #548.179!

Night Ranger – Hole In The Sun (VH1 Classic) :: This one starts out sounding like a Gary Numan album from 1979—but don’t worry, Kyoto, ’cause it doesn’t take long for the proceedings to kick into the kind of stereophonic dual-guitar speed-freak flights of fret-finaglin’ fancy that, as much as I hate to admit it, is the very epitome of classic rock incarnate. ¡Mucho recomendado!

The Great Outdoors – Spring (DDG) :: This three-track EP evokes folksy blues in a simple Beggar’s Banquet slide style that’s sincere enough to make me want to hear a full-length album—and I hate folksy blues almost as much as I hate ballads.

Ndidi Onukwulu – The Contradictor (Jericho Beach) :: Unlike other Billie Holiday wannabes, this is what a real soulstress sounds like. Ndidi’s brass-backed album bubbles with sharp-edged passion and smooth sensual singing that puts everyone else to shame shame shame.

Matthew Sweet – Sunshine Lies (Shout! Factory) :: Beginning with the ballsy backwardelic intro, this fuzzy Nazz-fueled album is pure pop incarnate, the likes of which you haven’t heard since the heady heyday of the ’60s and ’70s. If you’re in the market for a very cool aural amalgamation of Todd Rundgren, Brian Wilson, and Badfinger, then step right up ’cause this is one of the best pop albums you’ll hear so far—and it’s so good.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: The Browns – The Complete Hits (Collectors’ Choice) :: Lissen, bub, any country song from 1963 called “Looking Back To See” that contains the rhymin’ line: “And the way that she was stacked, I wished I had a Cadillac” deserves to be stashed in your overendowed record rack, alright?

Be seeing you!