Casey Stratton – Standing at the Edge

Sometimes judging an album by its cover can be quite instructive. Consider Standing at the Edge, an album with a cover that bears the smoldering, unconvincingly pouting visage of gloss-pop singer/songwriter/pianist Casey Stratton. Unfortunately, his music proves equally unconvincing—too soaked in half-digested ideas, ham-fisted diary-entry lyrics and emotional poses to catch fire. Though, admittedly, every track displays a prodigious talent for grand, theatrical pop in the October Project/Tori Amos/Sarah McLachlan mold. Let’s hope he outgrows the tendency to over- or under-reveal (a sign of insecurity, not coincidentally one of Stratton’s primary subjects) and matures into an artist comparable to those he emulates on Standing at the Edge.