Blinker The Star

Jordon Zadorozny and his Montreal-based band Blinker the Star got a lot of press after he hooked up with Courtney Love to write some songs for Stevie Nicks. But the tepid grunge of Blinker the Star’s last effort, A Bourgeois Kitten, turned off a lot of the hype machines. After a shift in vision towards the pop tones of XTC and the pure melodies of the Beatles, Zadorozny strikes back with a new album that is truly something for the music press to sing about. Released by Los Angeles-based label Dreamworks, home of another talented Canadian singer/songwriter, Rufus Wainwright, August Everywhere strings together moody lyrics and wistful melodies to score a winning combination. It is a series of loopy pop that shares a brain with the recordings by Toronto musician Spookey Ruben. The album’s longer songs, such as “Below The Sliding Doors” and “Strange As They Say,” have an innovative sweep which might not score a commercial radio hit. They do, however, make for excellent home listening.