Blinker the Star August Everywhere (Dream Works...

September 05, 1999|By Moira McCormick.

Blinker the Star

August Everywhere (Dream Works)

The beauty of "August Everywhere" is that just when you think you know where it's headed, you're wrong. Melodies, and sometimes rhythms, make sudden left turns; a beguilingly sweet-and-sour string section pops up out of nowhere, tinting chief Blinker Jordon Zadorozny's pop concoctions and leaving you in a strange, dreamy daze. As does any self-respecting popmonger, Ontario native Zadorozny (who previously collaborated with Courtney Love on Hole's album "Celebrity Skin") has his love-struck side, on display in leadoff track "September Already." He also writes of monsters, drug fiends and bores, though you'd never know it from their sun-dappled musical settings. Those echoes you hear are of other quirky, mostly pantheon-of-Britpop antecedents like XTC, the Police, and 10cc; Blinker the Star's third album is all but untouched by whatever's currently the rage. Fortunately for us, it inhabits a far-flung island all its own.