You've got the glam-rock stomp of "Transcendental Sports Anthem", complete with quotes from both the Monkees theme song and the Get Smart theme - the later on theramin, no less. Both "Sandie" and "Turtle & The Flightless Bird" fill the singer/songwriter slot nicely. ("Sandie" also features that French horn solo I mentioned above, a la Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush") "Paratrooper With Amnesia" could easily be mistaken for an out-take from The Kinks' Muswell Hillbillies. And so on. The only genres missing, really, are reggae and punk - and both are fairly well represented elsewhere, wouldn't you say?

Having said all that, I'd be remiss if I left you with the impression that LPOTWU is just a slavish recreation of other people's past glories. The vibe of previous times is there, but it's done in a way that allows Davis' personal take on life in the... what is it... 21st century to shine through. The tools of the past are used to examine the present, if you will.

Is it a perfect album? No, of course not. What the hell's wrong with you? The rhythm track of "Giant Spiders", the weakest song of the set, is way too busy, for one thing. And Davis gets a little too cute with the lyrics here and there. "Turtle & The Flightless Bird" gives us the line "After a while I arrived at a pile of feathers / crying in all capital letters / with a big white sling on her wing / and two geysers where her eyes were". I mean, I dig that kind of thing, but even I can see where it might be a bit much.

This is nitpicking, though. Davis has turned in a really strong album. The playing is quality from top to bottom. I've often found that when you listen to one of these "one-man band" kinda deals (Rundren, Prince, Lindsay Buckingham, etc.*), there's always one aspect of the musicianship that straggles a bit, simply because it's incredibly difficult to be really good at everything. Usually it's the drumming that comes up lacking, I guess because they figure nobody's gonna pay that much attention to it, or folks will cut them some slack in that regard. Something along those lines, anyway. Well, I'm here to tell you that Devin Davis is, among other things, a damn good drummer. Given the many layers of instrumentation on display here, if you extrapolate a bit you've got an excellent debut.

I really can't recommend Lonely People of the World, Unite! highly enough. Maybe it's just my inner rock & roll geek coming out, but I'd have to say that this is one of my favorite releases so far this year. At any rate, I'm glad I found it. Do yourself a favor and pick this thing up somewhere.

* I'm not aware of any women attempting to do this, although I'm sure there must have been a few over the years. If I'm overlooking anyone, please let me know.