Solar Bipolar

Album Review

A tough-minded debut, with lyrical bite and guitar growl in abundance, New York singer/songwriter Randi Russo blends early Patti Smith theatrics with Jefferson Airplane rawness and a chaotic garage rock spirit. As if stepping out of the summer of 1976, Russo's confident and idiosyncratic approach to the rather staid formulas employed by the majority of those who would be considered her contemporaries is a very pleasant detour and ultimately places her in an all too lonely class of songwriters. Capable of channeling a visceral energy without coming off as even slightly contrived, she maneuvers through a variety of roughly cast guitar tones and changing tempos, tempered with the occasional stripped-down ballad. Further, she maintains a confidence and poise throughout that only echoes the fact that her approach is largely at variance with the current talents in her genre. All in all, an impressively balanced and altogether realized work from an artist who comes darn close to finding her own sound on her first release.