Okay, close your eyes. The most important thing a reviewer can do is to give an album context and this handy little time machine here (which you conveniently cannot see because your eyes are close but believe me, it does exist) is going to give us context.

Okay, ready?

[you hear a whirring noise....you sneak a peak and see that you're flying through a bizarre empty purgatory filled with thousands of clocks, Mr. Peabody, and Sherman...you shut your eyes...]

Okay, you can open your eyes now. Take a look around. We are at the odd nexus of a seeming vacuum of culture. Hair metal has been killed by Cobain. Cobain has been killed by Cobain. Grunge is fading. Guns N Roses is irrelevant. New Kids On The Block is irrelevant and the rest of the boy bands are short of puberty. Britney Spears is still a Mouseketeer. Buddy Holly, as channeled by Weezer is a few months away from hitting it big. Radio is dominated by relatively safe but comfortably catchy one hit wonders such as Deep Blue Something (“Breakfast At Tiffany’s”), The Proclaimers (“I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”), Better Than Ezra (“Good”), Third Eye Blind (“Semi-Charmed Life”), and a million others. Welcome to the mid-90s!

[Editors note: Yes, this is overly simplistic and my timeline doesn't quite line up, I know. We're trying to make a point here so bear with us and save the snarky remarks for, well, the comments).

So why did I take you to here, the sunny pre-Monica post-Watergate Clinton years? I already told you the answer! Context! Context for what? Dion Roy and his debut album, Gallery.

Dion is a South African-born but New York residing "singer-songwriter". I put singer-songwriter in quotations because I (1) hate that phrase and (2) don't think it's accurate. I think one man band is a more apt description. This is not lonely college guy with acoustic guitar stuff, it's polished and lush pop music played by one guy who happens to sing. And write the songs. Okay, maybe he's a singer-songwriter. But not in the common perception of one.

How does this all tie into the mid-90's then? Well, my main point of comparison, my north star, in this quest to understand Dion Roy and his music and his music is the mid-90s. Namely, Gallery is a collection of hook-filled songs that sound like one man retreated to a bedroom filled with instruments, recording gear, and a collection of the mid of mid-90's guitar pop music on compact disc and then recorded an album. Gallery is that album.

I could have just skipped the last four paragraphs or so and simply said "You know the movie Empire Records? Well, about half the songs on Gallery should have been on that soundtrack". But then, that wouldn't have been as fun and we wouldn't have had the chance to reminisce about Breakfast At Tiffany's. Which I believe was important to do.

My point remains: Gallery sounds like an intimate one man time machine trip to the perfect pop music of the mid-90's. Hooks are abound. Safe, yes, and all the edges have been smoothed but they've been smoothed and safe in pleasing way. You want to tap your foot and sing along with the choruses. Actually it's not an issue of "want" but rather you feel compelled to. It's almost involuntary. Album highlights include "Blind World", "Wants It", and "I'll Never Know".

I'll Never Know is an excellent song to pause on for a minute because it shows all that is good about Dion Roy and all that is....less good. It's a kickass song that immediately transports me back to a middle school bus, listening to songs I've recorded off the radio onto cassette tapes. Which is the good thing. The downside is that while it's a kickass song, it never really kicks ass. It comes close, mind you, but it just never manages to go over the edge. It sounds like one man playing all the instruments rather than a band rocking out. I can't help but feel like the song would have been improved by just cutting lose and letting a certain rawness into the recordings. As with much of the music of the 1990s, Gallery walks a thin line between between being glossed to perfection and being glossed to death. It stays on the right side of the line most of the time but, as I said, it's a pretty thin line.

So okay, we're back in 2009 now [wait, I didn't see us transport back? Did you not really have a time machine?] and in our hands we hold Dion Roy’s debut, Gallery. A strong debut for sure. If you grew up in the 1990s, you might just love it.

And a final note, I’m being handed a slip of paper by my producer that says if you want to be entered into a contest for a chance to win a iPod, join Dion Roy’s mailing list in the next month.

Contest details here: http://bit.ly/MiNiX Cool!

[mp3] Dion Roy – Blind World

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