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Chris Koza has a great voice—edgy but smooth, perhaps tinged by a steady diet of smokes, the kind of voice that leads to instant liking of the music lying underneath. Such is the case with Koza’s latest release, Patterns.

From the first strums of the acoustic guitar shimmering atop electronic burbles and cycling drum track on “Midnight Rose,” Koza uncorks his whiskey-warm voice, “In the high, in the high, in the high, high winds / On the plains, on the plains of your milky skin.…” From there alternative pop bliss ensues through the dozen songs captured on this disc.

Though the album is self-produced, Patterns could hold its own among any major label release. Koza bases his songs on acoustic guitar, and with that accompaniment alone, these songs would still stand strong. But Koza enlists the help of tasteful, musical brothers in arms—Luke Anderson (drums and percussion), Justin Blair (bass) and Peter Sieve—to polish and shine his album into a work of pleasing genius.

Recommended if you like Robyn Hitchcock, Pete Yorn, Paul Westerberg, Wilco, the newly acoustic Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Greg Adams
7/23/06