3 out of 5

Produced by: Jon San Paolo

Label: MCG

I’m a gym guy, and I have been for 15+ years.  Which means nothing, bear in mind – and no need to cower from fear of furious-guy-at-keyboard: I weigh as much as a dead cat and I sweat at the thought of picking up feathers – BUT I feel I’ve been doing it long enough to understand my natural genetic limits.  To wit: I can get comparatively lean and strong, but I’m not borne of naturally skinny or muscley stuff, so I’ll never be that cover model.  I accept this, and work within my range of abilities.

Where are we with this review…?  Well, say you’re the lead singer of My Canadian Girlfriend, and you want to be a rock band with Bob Weston recorded chops.  But – fie the day – you’re cursed with an AOR Bruce Springsteen type voice that ne’er fails to conjure images of dads rockin’ out to early FM.  You may have to accept that the Weston path ain’t your fate.

Shogun has some good riffs.  A couple tracks whip out some post-rock breakdowns amidst fairly standard pub crawl jams, and the group is skilled enough to incorporate strings or horns tastefully, no beats missed.  But that voice just doesn’t sell it, and ends up making the tracks sound, as mentioned, like dated rock and roll.  Your dad puts it on and you can definitely get into it for the time being, but it’s not gonna make your faves playlist once dad leaves the room.