Posted on: July 14, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Coby Brown – Time Is Now / 2007 Self / 4 Tracks / http://www.cobybrown.com /

Coby Brown and the 11:11s play a brand of pop rock that is comparable to the work of a Coldplay, Keane, or Artic Monkeys. That means that the music that is on “Time Is Now” is inoffensive, does not experiment in the slightest, and relies on the paths that previous individuals have traveled. The tracks go back quickly owing to this inoffensive sound; “Ballerina In A Bullfight” is another example of this. Coby Brown’s vocals on “Time is Now” are soft and silken; I can completely see where eir could be compared to a Morrissey meets John Maher type of person.

Again, there is not anything in the way of challenging music here, but individuals will be able to get into a track like “Ballerina in a Bullfight” and sing along quickly. “Swim For Shore” starts the second half of the disc, and it feels like there is a little more in the way of gravity to the composition. The track is imbued with a greater emotion than any of the prior compositions on the disc, and it shows an evolution of Brown’s sound that is positive in all of the right ways.  This does not mean that Brown is going into a completely different direction, but that there are some additions to Brown’s overall sound that will make audiophiles happy.

The fact that this variation is present even over a 4 track EP is a positive for Brown and makes me believe that ey will be able to fill up a full length album without much in the way of a problem. There may be a little bit of a slow start with the full length that follows “Time Is Now”, but I think that Brown will be able to settle in nicely. However much Brown changes on “Swim for Shore”, there is still much room for an expansion of Brown’s overall sound. Hell, Brown can even achieve the vocal range of a Lenny Kravitz, but it will not mean anything unless ey can continue the variation that was first present during “Swim For Shore”. The final track on “Time is Now” is “Dangerous”, and it provides listeners with another slower track. There seems to be a little Mexican influence to the track, and while it does not show individuals any new vocal stylings by Brown, it is another slightly different track for individuals to chew on.

Top Track: Swim For Shore

Rating: 5.8/10

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