Black & White Matinee

It's kind of shocking how much J.J. Appleton sounds like one of the Beatles, in his new album, "Black & White Matinee."

The 6-track album is short, but a nice taste of what may be a quite promising artist. What is quite neat is how much Appleton sounds like a cross between the Beatles and Tom Petty, and pulls it off quite well.

The best song on this album is probably either track 1 or 3, though again, every song has its own distinct melody and flavor.

The nice thing is that even though this is a very short album, what is on it is of a superior quality to much of the other music floating around today. Each song imparts its own individualistic fingerprint onto the album as a whole, making "Black & White Matinee" a patchwork effort of distinctive excellence.