Scott McCarl-Play On... (Titan)

Scott McCarl is really little more than a footnote in rock history. He joined up with the seventies power-pop band The Raspberries for their last album, Starting Over, which Rolling Stone mag called the best album of 1974.

The 'Berries broke up soon after and McCarl has been pretty much out of music until finally releasing his solo debut nearly twenty-five years later. The amazing thing is how strong the album is. I guess he had a lot of years of songs stockpiled, because each tune on this album is memorable.

"Go Down Swinging" has the swampy rock feel of a classic Creedence cut while "Going On My Way" teaches current pop-leaning singers how it's done. "In Love Without A Girl" pulls off the neat trick of sounding like something the Cars wrote in 1982 while sounding completely contemporary.

I can't wait for McCarl's followup in the year 2022. (4/98)