B-Leaguers’ ‘Death of a Western Heart’ is crammed to the finish line with hooky punk-pop songs along the lines of the Buzzcocks, Undertones and Green Day.

Juggling pop rocking finesse with experimental episodes, Speed the Plough is still mixing and mashing genres. Democracy remains the key word on ‘Now.’

Fortunato Isgro’s “Good Times Bad Times” borrows the best elements of the past, then tops them off with a contemporary delivery.

There’s nothing forced about 1970’s back-to-basics ‘Morrison Hotel,’ which found the Doors offering blues-battered hard rock with renewed vim and vigor.

With a touch of Southern-fried soul, Joe Mandica’s “My Heart Belongs” is like a marvelous mating of Bill Lloyd with Bill Deal and the Rhondels.

Taking its title from the name of the street the Verve Pipe’s Donny Brown grew up on, ‘Hess Street EP’ was a striking debut recording.

Solo outings by members of successful bands rarely meet expectations. The self-titled second EP from Donny Brown of the Verve Pipe is different.

A poignant paean to his son and daughter, Joe Mandica’s “I Just Can’t Wait” has been made complete with a newly released video featuring intimate images of family.

Sparsely furnished in the instrumental and arrangement department, but rippling with bare-the-soul prose, Phil Marshall’s ‘Scatterbed’ clocks in as the ultimate rainy day album.

Perfectly placed instrumentation ties in with Chad Bradford’s rich and deep vocals on “Where My Heart Belongs,” like a cool cross between Joe South and Eddie Money.