Mutiny

The last thing one might expect from Greg Kihn is a full-out sea shanty, followed by an album of strong, folky arrangements of familiar and unfamiliar material, but Kihn started out as a coffeehouse kind of folkie, and it's come back to tap him on the shoulder with this terrific album. There's no single locked-down style here, which is a major benefit for all concerned -- it makes possible an arrangement of "Not Fade Away" coupled with Bo Diddley's "Mona" that uses African percussion as the rhythmic foundation, and that's only one of many delights. This is Greg Kihn on a different track, not precisely unplugged but more likely unhampered. ~ Steven McDonald