Massimo, Massimo

This little five-track disc seems to encapsulate the previous year of Michael Massimo’s life. According to the press release, he set his own car on fire with himself inside. I do not how that is even possible outside of a Jackass video, but anyway. Then his guitar collection was stolen, and, most seriously, his father passed away. All of the would seem to indicate that this would be a downer of a listen, and indeed it is. You know there’s not a fun time to come when the first three tracks are titled “Anywhere But Here,” “Accident,” and “Wasted.”

All of the songs have the same mid-tempo pace and are really hampered by the overly-revered guitar sound. The playing seems to be at the level of your average teenager, with big strumming notes that are held for too long. The music seems to be the foundation for Massimo’s vocals, and that would be a good idea, except that only on closing track “Daylight” does he sound good. On this track, his vocals match the slower pace of the song and allow the track to build some momentum for the chorus. On the other tracks, he tries too many add-ons — think “eh-eh-eh”s unnecessarily added onto any word. At those times, he sounds like a singer in a Live cover band. This CD could still seemingly sneak onto the playlist of an adult contemporary radio station — probably not a good one, though.