The reviews

Time Without Consequence
Alexi Murdoch
Zero Summer Records

It’s a heck of a start to a career. Before he had released any material in the States, Alexi Murdoch was championed by KCRW’s influential tastemaker Nic Harcourt.
This led to the release of the Four Songs EP, which led to appearances in Garden State and on the The O.C.. Even arranger Van Dyke Parks became a fan, praising his “imaginative chords.”
Fortunately, Murdoch’s self-produced full-length lives up to that early promise. The Nick Drake-inspired Breathe and Orange Sky are likely to be familiar to most listeners.
Another standout is Home, which shakes up his folky formula with feedback and trip-hop beats. If Time Without Consequence has a fault, it’s simply that Murdoch sounds remarkably like fellow Drake devotee José González.  In any case, Murdoch has fashioned a satisfying debut.

Cruel Words
Johnny Dowd
Bongo Beat Records

An all-American original, Johnny Dowd, combines a sound that suggests roots rock from the Twilight Zone,
writing steeped in film noir, and a craggy voice that raves more than
it croons.
Prophet or musical madman? With the return of vocalist Kim Sherwood-Casio to smooth some of Dowd’s rough edges, the bare-bones interplay of Michael Stark’s keyboards, Brian Wilson’s drums, and the jagged edges of Dowd’s guitar reinforce the dark essence of the material.
Dowd and band explore thematic dimensions where lesser mortals fear to tread. Changes of pace include a surf-style instrumental Wilder than the Wind ’66, and a finale that grafts Black Sabbath’s Iron Man onto Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode.
Ding Dong suggests that, for Johnny Dowd, every day is Halloween.

Introducing Robin McKelle
Robin McKelle
Cheap Lullaby

Robin McKelle is being promoted as a 40s-style jazz singer, but though she does pluck tunes from the era on this enjoyable debut, her full-frontal approach is steeped in the brassy big band sounds of the late 50s and early 60s.
A bicoastal stylist who draws equally from the lilting jazz purity of Ella Fitzgerald and the pop pizzazz of Barbra Streisand, she is a refreshing departure from all those female jazz singers currently vying for attention with coy understatement or an overreliance on technique.
Introducing Robin McKelle was produced by Willie Murillo, who is responsible for an unlikely arrangement of Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen that morphs from moody chamber piece into full-fledged Latin treatment.
If this is your sort of music then buy it. Otherwise it’s strictly so-so.