Matthew D. Guarnere is a multi-instrumentalist and singer from upstate New York, and MDG is a collection of a few short tunes that perfectly show this talented musician at home with many styles. After hearing this CD a few times, I was reminded most often of Todd Rundgren's solo albums from the late 70's or early 80's. "A Little Chemistry" is a quirky little number with big pop hooks and huge progressive rock instrumentation. The keyboard work of Robert Scribble is especially noteworthy here, and Matthew's vocals have that 80's arena rock power that really grabs the listener. Guarnere and Jay Palermo let their guitars do the talking in the Cheap Trick/Utopia inspired anthem "White Trash Wonder", while "You Never Have To Grow Old My Dear" is a majestic tribute to Freddie Mercury, complete with soaring vocals and lush piano work. I found "Where's Everybody Gone?" to be a nice melodic pop tune, but many may hear too many similarities to Extreme's "More Than Words." The CD also has a few remixes of these songs at the end which are kind of interesting, but I would have rather heard some more tunes.
Matthew D. Guarnere has a great voice, and writes some melodic material that has radio potential. I'll be very interested to hear where he goes from here.
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