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JORDAN ZEVON
Insides Out
(Ammal/New West)

(NO DEPRESSION.NET) -- Although Jordan Zevon is the son of the late Warren Zevon, it's unlikely that Insides Out is an attempt to trade on the family name. (The looming spirit of the elder Zevon would probably point out how little commercial value the name had while he was still alive.) Instead, Jordan's debut takes honorable cues from the power-pop of XTC, the Odds, and early Joe Jackson -- not artists with whom Warren was compared, though the Odds did once function as his backing band -- while his voice works a pleasant, much less whiny variation on that of Weezer lead singer Rivers Cuomo. Glossily produced and crisply played songs such as the Todd Rundgren-reminiscent "Camila Rhodes" and the nervously uptempo, New Wave-polished "The Joke's On Me" suggest that wit and melodic talent have been passed down from generation to generation. And Jordan's subtle, albeit previously released, version of Warren's "Studebaker" would no doubt arouse the old man's gruff pride.

-- JON M. GILBERTSON
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Jon M. Gilbertson.