Past Your Eyes

Sounding rather much like the love child of Juliana Hatfield and Maria McKee, Julia Greenberg rocks her way through ten pretty good tunes on Past Your Eyes. What results is just what you might expect — melodic alterna-pop with a bit of rock edge and the very slightest of country twangs. Lyrically, Greenberg shuns the politics that fill her daily life in favor of a more personal, intimate approach to songwriting that relies on the traditional themes of romance and heartbreak. Her take on the subjects, though, often comes with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Browse the titles and you'll get the drift — "Pitiful You," "Concubine," and "Stalker" to name a few. Although the satire isn't as obvious (or twisted) as guest backup vocalist Jill Sobule's writing can sometimes be, it's easy to see why the two are pals. The aforementioned "Pitiful You" is so darn catchy that it was downloaded enough to make Rolling Stone's MP3 charts. As Greenberg is part of the fairly incestuous gang of musicians that comprise Cropduster Records, it is only natural that labelmate James Mastro produced this record, and fairly well at that. Past Your Eyes is an impressive first offering from an artist who will, no doubt, only get better and better.