I’ve never had the best luck with receiving albums to review that I actually like, but this one made my commute on the subway a lot less intolerable.

With the release of singer/ songwriter Holmes new album, Stop Go, audiences are able to tell the maturity to his sound and realize he is not new to the music business. Holmes a.k.a Roy Shakked worked as a pianist in local bars while in the misted of studying at Berkley College of Music in Boston. Shortly after moving from Boston to New York to compose music at Music Pen for CD-ROM games, Holmes ended up in Los Angeles running his record label, Groovy Gravy records, and composing music for television. To name some of the few places one might hear Holmes’ music would be Sex and The City, Nip/Tuck, The Devil Wears Prada and The OC.

The sound is organic. It is raw and real without any tech-y addition. He has a solid sound that could almost be compared to The Beatles, but if they replaced Bob Dylan for Ringo Starr.

Stop Go begins with a steady beat turning into a 70’s “I don’t want to go to work” pop anthem with, “Five Days a Week.” The exaggerated sounds coming from, “Alone” also crosses over to anthem status with its compassion every area covered when it was created. Even with the slower ballads, such as “Prove me wrong again” and “Gray World”, the energy is high and the enthusiasm is Holmes’ voice truly expresses how much he loves his music.

My only real problem with the album would go to the song, or should I say snippet, “Oh Georgey,” because it lasted about 20 seconds. However, all in all the melodic sounds are brilliantly blended together in all the songs creating an ensemble playing off every cord, lyric and sound.

Even if folk music isn’t your thing, Stop Go will not necessarily turn your iTunes Library into a Fleetwood Mac compellation album, but it will broaden your view on this type of music.

It’s really rare to come across a cd a listener can just play without skipping over the bad songs. Stop Go is worth putting on that V.I.P. list