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Heather and I are slipping, but Brooks Tuck and Matt Browning are on it, so I'm going to go ahead and post their reviews.

We start with Mr. Tuck:

I tried. Lord, how I tried.  When charged with Jason Mraz's We Dance, We Sing, We Steal Things, I hesitated.  This is exactly the type of review that tends to get me in trouble with those who love this type of music. By this type of music, I refer to slickly produced focus group tested white boy soul music for female American Idol fans.

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It's not really the album of the month anymore, because I couldn't get this together for a month -- even though my correspondents sent me their stuff quite a while ago.

Anyway, It's about The Hold Steady's latest this time around.

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Here's our first go-round with this album of the month club thing. We're not reviewing local stuff, but national stuff, and only one a month. The four of us will take turns picking the CD, but if you want to suggest one, we might do it.

The four of us are: onetime record store manager Brooks Tuck; musician Matthew Browning (solo, the Royal Greens); Roanoke Times editorial assistant Heather Froeschl; and me, Tad. We'll add some more biographical info later.

We're starting with My Morning Jacket's "Evil Urges."

You all are welcome to comment.

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