Misguided Roses

Edwin McCain Band

Edwin McCain landed a major-label contract on the strength of his sets opening shows for his old South Carolina buddies, Hootie and the Blowfish. McCain's major-label debut, 1995's Honor Among Thieves, featured a duet with Hootie's Darius Rucker, and closely resembled the Blowfish formula of earnest soul vocals over acoustic-led folk-rock. On the followup, Misguided Roses, McCain tries to put some distance between himself and his famous mentors by adopting a fuller, more amplified pop-rock sound. It's an approach that shows off McCain's handsome tenor and his knack for writing catchy choruses, even if it does nothing for his melodramatic lyrics.

Recorded in Nashville with session vets Matt Rollings and Kenny Greenberg producing, Misguided Roses gains its full textures from the tightly packed layers of guitars and keyboards. If these mid-'70s, Southern-California arrangements remind one of the second-generation Doobie Brothers, you won't be surprised to find Michael McDonald matching his grainy, blue-eyed soul voice with McCain's on two numbers. And when McCain comes up with a Top-40-radio hook as effective as those on "I'll Be," "Darwin's Children," and "Holy City," you might find yourself wishing you didn't understand English so you could enjoy the music without hearing lines as stilted as "Emeralds from mountains thrust towards the sky." --Geoffrey Himes