Believe

Indie popster Ross Copperman and his band produced in his debut, Believe, an unexpected gem of an album. Copperman's buoyant, catchy melodies and jocund choruses arrived as a breath of fresh air in 2004, offering a synthesis of many of the most appealing schools of modern pop, from Gavin DeGraw's piano-fied rock to the candied sunshine of Linus of Hollywood. The album's propelled by piano block chords on its best tracks, the bouncy "Angel by Your Side" and the nicely modulated "Ordinary." Those cuts, alongside power ballads "I Will Be Here" and "Believe," position Copperman somewhere between Ben Folds and Robbie Williams, albeit with less wryness and more sunshine in his pop than either of them. Remarkably, there's little to no filler on Believe, and Clayton Ryder's clean if restrained production does no disservice to Copperman and his band. Believe was just another underexposed indie recording upon its 2004 release, but it's a fine, fine record (if a rather brief one), and suggests tremendous upward potential for its author.