CD of the Day, 3/17/06: Chris Brown-Now That You're Fed

By popular demand, I'm making Chris Brown's Now That You're Fed today's CDotD. I've been concentrating on the more overlooked discs, and as this one did get some play lately, having been featured at Not Lame etc., I figured it probably didn't need featuring.

But then I realized I overlooked it myself by not putting it in my top 10 of 2006 to date, because it does deserve a spot there. Why all the fuss? This is one of the more accomplished and inventive power pop debuts of late. Here are the testimonials gathered at the cd baby page for the album:

"The front runner for album of the year in 2006. Flat-out brilliant... a stunning debut."
-- Alan Haber, Host, "Pure Pop" WEBR Fairfax, VA

"...fans of intensely highly styled pop will fall down and worship at the altar of Brown."
-- Bruce Brodeen, President, Not Lame Recordings

"If you like clean, well-orchestrated pop you will love this! (the dude can write one heck of a Pop song). The vocals, which are layered and rich, remind me of the Beach Boys with a dash of XTC -- seriously solid singing...Give it a listen...I fear you may be impressed.”
-- Renee Richardson, Host, KFOG San Francisco, CA

"...already one of my faves for 2006."
-- Craig Leve, Host, "Snap, Crackle, POP!" KWVA Eugene, OR

Who am I to argue with these luminaries?

Brown is a kind of modern-day renaissance man; while not recording great albums, he's an independent filmmaker. The sound here is as described above, although comparisons I would add are Roger Joseph Manning of Jellyfish, Elliott Smith, and vocally above all, Joe Pernice. Listening to this album straight through while composing this post, I have to come to the conclusion I must have been on crack when I left this off the top 10 of 2006 list. The first three songs, "Right on Time", "I Won't Ask Why" and "All My Rivals" start off about as perfect as an album can, perfectly encapsulating all of the influences mentioned herein. The rest of the album is great as well, and even the 6 1/2-minute "April" doesn't wear out its welcome.

Here's an mp3 to download:

All My Rivals

Sample all the rest at cd baby. I'm not finding a myspace page after checking all the usual suspects (chrisbrown, chrisbrownmusic, chrisbrowntunes, etc.) nor do I see one linked from his site. The mp3 and the cd baby samples should be enough to convince anyone predisposed to like this kind of power pop. And I'll make sure I put down the crack pipe when it comes time to update the top 10 around April 1.