Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam fame may have one of the cooler names in rock ‘n roll, but his hard-rockin’ name belies the soft-rock underpinnings of his side-project, Brad. As far as side-projects go, this one could certainly be worse, but it could also be more exciting. In fact, I’ve heard C-SPAN 2 Senate debates that are more exciting. Like most side-project albums, this thing is very front-loaded, with most of the decent tracks way up front. Perfect to fool those picking this thing up at a used record store with listening stations. The lead singer certainly has an interesting voice, and Gossard’s song writing is obvious after hearing his tunes on various PJ albums, but what starts off as a promising, yet slow album, sputters as it gets deeper into the tracklisting. It’s a nice, little album with a couple pleasant tunes, but I’ve had pillows with more weight to them.
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