Inside

Turn

Annapolis singer-songwriter Doug Segree's recent release "Turn" will undoubtedly (to use the cliche) turn some heads. Mainly for it's crafty arrangements, stellar musicianship and solid production. It really is a solid effort for a "local" musician and "local" crew of the best around. Shows what you can do without a huge label breathing down your neck.

Sometimes, sadly enough "stellar musicianship" can tend to trample on some of the songs or maybe should I say overpower them a bit. Aside from the fact that I felt that some of the songs were forcing it to be hard "in your face" rock tunes when I didn't think they needed to be, I wonder what could be for Segree if he included more scaled down acoustic-centric oriented songs like "Christine". I believe it could have thrust more of a spotlight on the emotional quality of Segree's voice and perhaps place the songs in their proper genre. Genre bending aside.....

It feels a lot like a power pop record from a Matthew Sweet (albeit a heavier version) or the likes. The songs do vary from rocking melodic to carefree (especially "Bounce" which was my favorite track) to jangly beefed up ballads with an occasionally noticeable lack of meat on the lyrical end. Many of today's singer-songwriters show more of themselves in their lyric exposing themselves to their audience thus creating a vulnerability that further draws them in. I would like to see what Segree could accomplish with more personal expression lyrically.

Overall, I do commend Mr. Segree for this record. I really did enjoy the listen AND can honestly say that I found myself listening to it at high volumes and singing along when moved. Which is the key to good power pop right? Bob

http://www.dougsegree.com