Brett Spaulding & The Psychic Spies –  Livin’ To Play

www.facebook.com/brett.spaulding.9

self release

9 songs time – 32:20

Rockers Brett Spaulding & The Psychic Spies from Canada traverse rock, pop and soul music that harkens back to the radio friendly light weight rockers such as REO Speedwagon and Styx. Brett handles vocals, guitar backed by standard drums, bass, additional guitar and keyboards. All songs are written or co-written by Spaulding covering familiar “keep on keepin’ on” and angst territory.

The title song is a rocker kicked off with a thumping bass line into a distorted guitar riff. “Driveby” is a slice of funky soul-pop with a catchy riff. Much here is the usual upbeat rock fare as exemplified on tunes like “The Ride” and “Can’t Stop”. The pace and sound are changed up for a nice change of pace on the slow acoustic guitar-electric sitar atmospheric “Waiting”.

Ringing electric guitars propel the easy rolling rock of “The Lucky One”. The gang gets back to good old noisy rock on “City Walls”. “There’s no rest in these city walls”. You can visualize this one as a MTV video. A hearty and funky riff breathe life into the meaty “Everyday”, a song that incorporates some straight ahead rock guitar. The pop-rock of the jangly guitar fueled “Little Differences” raps up the proceedings.

The production by Chad Holtzman and Brett Spaulding reveal a clean and crisp sound. Nothing really off-putting here, but nothing that resonates in your head later. Chances are you won’t be singing or humming these tunes around the house. To use the over used cliché, this isn’t my cup of tea. Could be yours. That’s why things come in different colors and flavors. To reuse a quote from one of my favorite thinkers, Batman -“Each to their own said the lady as she kissed her cow”. With that astute bit of wisdom I leave you to decide.