John Davis
When John Davis put his power-pop bandSuperdragon ice following the release of 2002's Last Call for Vitriol, he did the same to his long-time battle with alcohol, finding escape from his music and a strong belief in his religious faith. The singer, songwriter and instrumentalist extraordinaire is back with a new crop of hair to rival his Tennessee brethrens Kings of Leon, and another dozen saccharine pearls that are full of peace, but far from peaceful. Davis is candid and autobiographical without being pretentious and, true to form, crafts his songs around the panache of pop icons and contemporaries: Brian Wilson's one-man choir on "I Hear Your Voice"; John Lennon's "I Found Out" blues on "Have Mercy"; Badfinger's radiance on the gospel-flavored "Jesus Gonna Build Me a Home"; and the whiplash-anthem tome of Guided by Voices on "Too Far Out." Calling out to both the spiritual and the secular, this is a scrupulous journal of an artist who reached the threshold of a negative excess and clawed his way back to a positive one.--Scott Holter