Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!

The very title Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! swaggers in a fashion thats nearly boastful: it sends a signal that the Nashville-based singer/songwriter/guitarist Aaron Lee Tasjan isnt bashful about his idiosyncratic talents. The bragging is warranted. Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! is a clever, heartfelt pop record steeped in Jeff Lynnes golden era as a producer -- think of the bejeweled surfaces of Tom Pettys Full Moon Fever and Traveling Wilburys, Vol .1 -- and beating to a vulnerable, human heart. Tasjans melodies are so bold that it may take a moment for his sly, subversive nature to catch hold. All the nods to classic guitar pop give Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! a mildly retro air, yet the album is thoroughly modern in its sensibility. Tasjan sings about breaking up with his boyfriend to date his girlfriend on Up All Night, litters Feminine Walk with puns and gender-bending winks, and celebrates all the art-punks on Dada Bois, a spacy tower of sound that sends the album into the stratosphere in its final stretch. Usually, the rhythms are a bit jauntier than Dada Bois or the stately closer Got What I Wanted, yet even when it rolls to an infectious beat, the mood of Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! is mellow. Tasjan digs within his songs, teasing out their meanings and finding multi-colored hues to their melodies, his leisurely pace creating a nice dreamy quality. Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! is an album that invites -- and benefits from -- full immersion, as it has its own odd, alluring flow. The nods to the past only serve to indicate how thoroughly Tasjan has absorbed Petty and Lynne, finding a way to spin universal pop into something personal and poignant. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine