Jude: Redemption (Naive/Elite)

There are those of us old enough/smart enough/obsessed enough to know that Paul McCartney's Ram album of '71 -- his first fully-fledged album after being in His Previous Band -- was among the three best albums of his very long post-Beatles career. (see tag)

So maybe only we few might fully appreciate this album by a man called Jude.

Okay, even in his darkest days Macca never wrote an opening line like, "I wrote this song to keep from killing myself". But then again McCartney only left An Enormously Famous Band . . . and who knows what poor Jude has been through?

That said, even on that song (End of My Rainbow, an acoustic rumination) Jude redeems himself through a smart melody and some humour. And elsewhere he fires off pop ballads that are as attractive as Macca did back in those Ram days when he was unacknowledged because he wasn't The Cynical One.

None of these musical/pop culture references may seem relevant to this smart young singer-songwriter in the new millennium -- but I invite you to listen to this, and you'll hear the connection.

There's also a smattering of James Taylor/70s Californian singer-songwriters. But after all the references (and the ghost of the great Harry Nilsson is here) have been turned to wispy burned-black paper, a man called Jude has made a damn fine album.

I have no idea who he is. But I like him very much.

But like That Other Guy --and Nilsson -- he writes wonderfully urgent/personal/ power pop/ acoustic ballad/ songs.

Hey, Jude. Ram on.