Lately, when I've been feeling the need to mellow out, I've been popping in CDs by Los Angeles singer-songwriter Bryan Master. However, as I'm quickly reminded upon listening, it's hard to stay too mellow because his multi-faceted music provides so many energetic, toe-tapping moments that I can't help but crank it up and sing along, forgetting all about the chillaxing I had planned on doing. His debut LP, 2003's Lost At Sea, is an excellent collection of this talented artist's unique and energetic sound.

On his more recent EP, Incommunicado, Master's songs stand out more easily. Perhaps that's due to the album having fewer songs than Lost At Sea, or maybe this album's songs aren't quite as varied. However, new aspects of the music will stand out more and more with each listen. Even though Lost At Sea takes a more straightforward singer-songwriter approach, it's anything but ordinary. Master takes elements from several classic folk and rock sounds and mixes them with his own unique style to create a full album of memorable tracks.

Lost At Sea starts with "all Else Fails," which invokes a touch of rockabilly swagger to get the album off to a very upbeat start. However, Master immediately slows the pace with "reunion of Sorts," though the song doesn't stay soft for long, as this cleverly-written account of two old friends catching up has one of the album's most rocking choruses. More rocking comes in as "meteor(ite)" opens with a quick, chugging baseline before rising into a fun piece of pop-rock.

Even the songs that aren't as rocking, like the sweet and peppy "now or Never," pack a lot of punch, as Master's strong delivery adds a tremendous amount of energy and emotion regardless of the music's pace. "blue seattle" has a beautifully layered chorus - "In the morning / We'll forget about that fight / We'll always have Seattle" - that grows more powerful as the song moves along. "737" is, like much of this album, a fine example of a song that would have been great as a purely acoustic number but is bolstered by electric instruments without ever losing its basic feel. And "bird of Paradise," clearly the album's slowest, could have easily been a two-minute interlude, but Master extends it into a full song, dripping with dreamy placidity.

Aside from "reunion of Sorts," the album's best tracks arrive close to end in the form of "californ.I.A." and "bring Out the Stars." "californ.I.A." contains Beach Boys-like breeziness and endless pop-rock goodness as Master pines for a west-coast love: "Here I am alone and dreaming / On a quiet New York City day / I'm the mouse inside the maze." Evoking Automatic for the People-era R.E.M., the piano-laced "bring Out the Stars" is a gorgeous piece throughout all four of its minutes, but when the chorus - "You bring out the best / You bring out the worst / You're from Venus and I am from Mars / But baby you bring out the stars" - erupts at the end, the song becomes a powerful soul-stirrer.

Though he is most often compared to the like of Elvis Costello and R.E.M., Master has a sound all his own that can easily appeal to just about anyone. He plays a wide array of instruments and uses as many as he can to enhance his songs, which are already cleverly penned and musically moving. Fans of the eclectic would do well to check out Bryan Master and his album Lost At Sea.


Also from Bryan Master :

Incommunicado
For People Like Us
www.bryanmastermusic.com 

Recommended: Yes