Car Guitar Star [CD]

Anyone familiar with Daniel Wylie's music through his solo career or when he recorded as The Cosmic Rough Riders, will know what to expect - fantastic melodies, fantastic singing and harmonies and great production. This album is a little more "electric" sounding that his recent work, and all the better for it.
It's his best work so far, but I said that about the last one and I'll probably say it about his next one.
Brilliant.

Haven't a clue what the one star review is about because Daniel Wylie is one of those rare musicians where the pace of the release of the music is relentless while the quality manages to stay at the absolute peak of the genre - not only is he exemplary at guitar pop but his songs are sometimes painfully poignant and evocative. If you've ever liked anything by the Cosmics, then this is a must buy.

(I noticed someone left a one star review of this album. Must be a Cosmic Rough Riders member disgruntled because of Daniel Wylie's ability to create such a superb album!!!)

First of all, if you are considering purchasing this album, definitely get it, its excellent, one of Wylies best. Now if you're bored and would like to read my review here you go:

Back in the day, Daniel Wylie was writing pretty pop melodies for his band The Cosmic Rough Riders. He left that band a few years back and released his solo album "Ramshackle Beauty" in 2004. "Ramshackle Beauty" was very similar to his music in the Cosmic Rough Riders and his fans had now realised that Daniel Wylie was the real talent behind the Cosmic Rough Riders.

The Cosmic Rough Riders went on to release "Too Close to See Far" without Daniel Wylie. While it may not have been a complete failure commercially, it was no longer the real Cosmic Rough Riders. It lacked any kind of distinction whatsoever, with no substantial songwriting ablity left within the band.

I've enjoyed listening to Daniel Wylie's music since the beginning of the Cosmic Rough Riders. I'm a big fan of the mid-period Cosmic Rough Riders, especially "Pure Escapism" and "Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine".

Well its 2010 now and the music industry has changed a lot since those days. As Daniel sings in "Car Guitar Star", -don't steal my music-where is the incentive to create music anymore.

In other words, 2008, the year of the release of Daniel Wylies album "Car Guitar Star", proved to be a defining year for the music industry. The music industry as a whole lost over half of its profits from 10 years prior because of illegal music downloads. The indie artists suffer the most because they have no recourse or backing to deal with this.

Well, fortunately for us, Mr. Wylie has found a way to continue creating great music. This is extremely respectable and I hope he has another release coming soon. It takes a lot of time and money to market an independent release like this.

There is some really great music on this release, very similar to his earlier releases, very melodic with a lot of acoustic guitar. For some reason, this release has a somewhat power-pop type of feel to it. It doesn't sound like power-pop in the typical sense but it just has this vibe about it that reminds me of the power-pop years. Some may disagree because it is still very much Daniel Wylie's sound.

"I Love America" starts off the album very upbeat and light.
"I'm a Machine", "I Can Fly", "Car Guitar Star", and "Hey Melvin" are my personal favorite tracks of the VOCAL tracks.

Thats right, we have an instrumental here, and a very excellent one! "Grand Canyon Experience" is the instrumental on the album, complete with excellent trumpet and interesting melodies. I would have liked another instrumental, but hopefully he has more music from these sessions stored away for later release.

That brings me to my next point which has to do with the length of the album -probably around 35 mintues long. Yes, a couple more songs would have been great, but like I said, I bet Mr. Wylie has some more of these great sessions available for later release (right Daniel?)

Its great to hear the vocal harmonies coming back into play again on this release. I have to say, honestly, I still long for the rich vocal harmony sound on the Daniel Wylie Cosmic Rough Riders releases, and hopefully, Mr. Wylie is headed back in that direction.
Thats what it sounds like from this album. Yeah, its a lot of work to get those harmonies recorded like that, and Wylie's material is strong enough to stand on its own without them, but its such a great sound when its done right and I hope he continues to expand on the vocal harmony sound.

Overall, another great release from Daniel Wylie. I would suggest buying the CD with the full liner notes and lyrics, its a little more expensive but well worth the extra money. Whatever you do, don't download it for free!!!!!