Project Bottlecap is a five-piece from Indianapolis. This CD lived in my CD player for many months, getting repeated listens in a single day. With each listen, the band's drummer, Dan, gets better and better. Pat, the vocalist, gets more tenacity in his vocals during songs like "Open Up Your Door" and more melodic during the best song on the CD "New Beginnings." Guitarists Jasin and Brad get more impressive and . . . well, who really listens to a bass player? <grin>

The title track gets this off to a good start with Pat running through a litany of musical genres after declaring, "I am a better man/ look inside my head/ see the man inside is already/ dancing on my grave." Later, the litany, "I will find it in the music/ in the punk rock, the hip hop, the emo, the screamo, the hardcore, the metal, the country, and the blues." Leave any out?

I don't think so, which makes this band smarter than many others. They realize that their sounds come from many influences and, if you listen to this CD as many times as I have, you hear them. The least obvious are the country and blues influence. The best I can come up with is that the songs on here deal with relationships that have gone wrong, like the recent country song "What Was I Thinking?" <shudder> I know the name of a country song.

I think what gets this band above other bands in the punk/emo genre is the ease with which this band shifts from one mood to another and among the aggressive instrumentals, the band knows when to tone down its message. This is most evident in "Out of Habitat." Pat sings, "I think that somebody's been poking at my cocoon/ cause I don't seem to be developing."

There is a strong sense of "coming out of a cocoon" on this release. The lyrics reflect a journey in life to a world of love and lost relationships. In "Easy," Pat sings, "I thought it would be easy / to let you out times (sic) backdoor / But now I'm feeling so messed up / This ain't easy like it was before." Then in "Eastside," he sings, "Everyone around me is getting married / I don't even think I know what love is."

At the same time, the band has a sly sense of humor. In "A Call To Arms," in a very non-threatening tone, Pat sings, "I swear if I hear another Dave Matthews song/ I'm gonna tar out these speakers / . . . I swear if I see another Britney Spears / I'm gonna burn down every house I ever built." The trick in these lyrics is that they are delivered in laid-back fashion, without an ounce of hostility.

The disc ends with a hidden track that concludes the CD on a positive note. I am anxious to hear more from this band. They are working on the next CD, according to their Web site.

Rating: A-

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