Baton Rouge native Alex Chappo, now residing in New York, is the latest sonic polymath to emerge from our fertile soil. The songs on Media Machine stagger from herky-jerky funk strut “Look and See” to backwoods Credence hollers like “Rattle the Bone” to brittle Neil Young acoustic numbers “Friend” and “Mandy.” It’s an ambitious debut, one that occasionally runs aground when trying to do too many things at once (see the awkward jam band/rap hybrid “Nunchux”). But more often it exhibits confidence, as in the folksy scrapbook “Sal and Betty” and the epic closing number “Don’t Wait.” chappomusic.com
Essential tracks: “Mandy,” “Rattle the Bone,” “Sal and Betty”
Recommended if you like: Lou Reed, CCR, getting around to that Neil Young record you’ve never heard
