Listen, you've got favorites, I've got favorites. Maybe you like the Beatles, maybe the last American Idol winner. I don't know, and that isn't the point. But do you know who I like? Bob Parins, that's who. (Incidentally, Bob likes Of Montreal, and wrote and recorded a song named after their songwriting frontman, Kevin Barnes.) I first heard Bob's music somewhere around the turn of the century (it feels good to say that) when he performed with then-collaborator Nick Pichet early versions of songs in a project that later turned into the short-lived but much-beloved Brown Flamingos in Minneapolis. Since then, of course, he's gone on to graduate from Berklee College of Music in Boston and now lives, writes, records, teaches and performs in New York. Bob's music spans generations, genres, and ideas. The music is informed, not filled with quotes of legends gone by but of ideas inspired by them. Sometimes it's pretty - beautiful, even - as in the understated, gorgeous "This Might Be the Coffee Talkin'." You're as likely to notice a jaw harp as an electric guitar, to tell you the truth, but you are certain to hear the strongest melodies, harmonies and arrangements that you're going to hear in pop music these days. Yes, yes, take a second to re-read that sentence, if you want, but I stand behind it. This kind of gushing isn't going to be okay with Bob, and I'm sure he's mad that we got it out the door, having gone this long without saying what he wanted us to. He'd probably rather talk to you himself, telling stories about how he wrote a lot of these songs while sitting in a tiny booth working as a parking lot attendant in Minneapolis, or how he lived on a couch in a closet his first year in New York. But if we go on about his personal stories (and quirks) we'd lack the time and space to mention that Bob produced this album entirely on his own with a budget of approximately zero (Wait, correct that: exactly zero.) and it sounds spectacular. - Luther Hermanson www.30music.com