Misguided Roses

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