No One Is Really Beautiful

No One Is Really Beautiful by Jude

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Stylish Boston-born singer/songwriter Jude's delightful album is full of literate and precocious lyrics sung in an affecting tenor that trips a feathery falsetto, at times sharing an emotional space with Jeff Buckley. But Jude is also an inveterate wordsmith and a keen observer. The strongest song on this George Drakoulias-co-produced effort, "Charlie Says," paints a bittersweet Hollywood canvas with the same sure and insightful brush that Al Stewart used on "Electric Los Angeles Sunset." Likewise the pure-pop noir lament "I'm Sorry Now" is smart and playful, tender and biting. Jude is not locked into any one style. The folkie word-tumbling "You Mama You" contrasts with the dark and moody "Battered Broken," while "I Do" could be straight out of Jim Croce's songbook. The soft funk of "Rick James" and "Out of L.A.," while less successful exercises, or the Beatlesque "She Gets the Feeling," nonetheless convey the breadth of Jude's pop palette. -- John Sutton-Smith