Ike - In Real Life

2005 release! Happy, happy, joy, joy. Ike is led by John Faye. John was in the fab and dearly departed The Caufields, a very, very fine band on A&M who released two wonderful pop ditties that were ignored quite resoundingly and had fans of the band up in arms. Well, turns out that band`s body of work pales to the angelically ambitious forward reaching pop refinement of Mr. Faye on his own. This work is superior, hard as that might be to imagine. Featuring Cliff Hillis in his band for years now, Faye has a three other voices in the band that compliment his vision seamlessly and enhance very note on "In Real Life". It is his most accomplished and strongest work yet, which is really saying something.

Hard to pin down who he sounds like, as he really has his own sound. Just great, great Power Pop. Listen, get in there. Liberal use of strange and wildly weird and wonderful time signatures and sudden breaks leave any `paint by pop numbers` mold in the dust. The twists and turns are adeptly put to tape and in a better world, more receptive to this style of music, would be all over the radio and varying radio formatting positions. ick this bit of living water for the pop soul up, and let it nurture any pop fix you may need. Clean vocals, razzle dazzle hooks and all the great riffing that macho talented folks like Faye and Hillis can do like few others. Grade: Solid "A".

In Real Life - mp3

I Knew You When - mp3

Better Off Alone - mp3

Into Philadelphia - mp3

Cinderella Spark - mp3