August Everywhere

Between Bourgeois Kitten, Blinker the Star's 1996 major-label debut, and 1999's August Everywhere, their first effort for DreamWorks, a funny, unpredictable thing happened to the band. Jordon Zadorozny — who for all intents and purposes is Blinker the Star, their Brian Wilson-styled mastermind — was drafted by Courtney Love to add some polish to her songs for Hole's classic pop move, Celebrity Skin. He only wound up contributing to one track, "Reasons to Be Beautiful," but it was enough to elevate his status as a pop wunderkind and make August Everywhere quite anticipated, at least among certain critics and pop fans. Zadorozny delivers, to a certain extent, with August Everywhere. It certainly has the feel of an ambitious, smart pop album, with layered productions, and varied songs and hooks. Zadorozny isn't afraid to try different things, whether it's tight, driving pop ("Your Big Night, Sandy!") or spacy, acoustic pop ("The Star Behind the Star"). All the pieces are in place for a very good album, then. Except August Everywhere doesn't quite connect, at least in the way that it should. It feels technically perfect, but the hooks aren't really memorable and it doesn't really make much of an overall impact. It does begin to grow with repeated listens, but the culminative impression remains of an album that feels stronger than it actually is.