Always Be
With slightly hoarse, easy-over-the-vowels vocals resemblingElvis Costello'sAlmost Blue-period crooning, Jeffrey Gaines delivers declarative  musings on love gone wrong. Clean sonic backgrounds stick with acoustic  guitar and genteel percussion in the best adult-contemporary tradition,  though occasionally overdriven amps ("Shake It Off") or a simple,  creepy minor lick ("Fall You Fool") lend uncharacteristic color.  Unfortunately, Costello covers that same ground with much more  mesmerizing convolution; onAlways Be, if a lyric line ends in  "know," you can successfully leap to the conclusion that a "go" is  coming up, and probably predict most of the words in between. Ewan  MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" andPeter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" (enclosed twice), both boasting superior words,  demonstrate the singer's earnest and warm, though not earth-shattering,  melodic command.--Andrew Hamlin