Tokyo Rosenthal’s latest CD, Ghosts, continues his ongoing experiments in songwriting. You gotta give this guy credit for engaging, original lyrics and an ear for mashing up riffs. Take, for example, his song. “Inside Your Skull.” It starts off with blues-rock riffs and and old school rock crooner vocal. And just when you expect it to move into a minor bridge he throws you a change up with a full on pedal steel twangy riff. And on “I Can’t Read Ya” he gives us visions of go go dancers with a flute-based riff off-beat keyboard while he belts out obtuse lyrics. The thing you gotta love about Toke Rosenthal though is that he never forgets is job is to entertain the listener, which separates him from your run-of-the-mill songwriter.
Highlights for me are “Inside Your Skull,” “Still She Thanks God,” “Goin’ On Saturday,” and “I Can’t Read Ya.”