Caveat emptor: this review is based on a preview disc where several of the songs fade out prior to the end. Then again, a little Jeff Martin goes a long way. Exile and the Kingdom, Martin's first solo album since breaking up The Tea Party, mines much of the same territory his band did, most notably on the crunchy Middle Eastern-tinged anti-war epic 'The World Is Calling', but he also stretches out into dirty blues ('Black Snake Blues'), and even - astoundingly, given his dour reputation - shows a sense of humour ('Good Times Song'). Martin also writes one of his best ballads on the sitar-laced 'Daystar' (which cheekily references the TP album Edges of Twilight). Like his Tea Party work, Martin's lyrics are still dominated by 'tears', 'souls' and 'angels', but the musical bombast of his previous work has been tempered somewhat; a welcome change.
6