You think you've heard of me, you know you've seen me

I've written about Jim Verraros before; his debut album, Rollercoaster, has some very good dancefloor pop (and I still adore the DJ Strobe Global Club Edit 2 of "You Turn It On," which has to be one of my favorite remixes ever). However, before he released Rollercoaster, Jim had another "album": a series of songs released on mp3.com (before it reached its current incarnation as nothing more than a database) under the title Unsaid and Understood. When preparation for his "real" debut album began, Jim removed the songs from mp3.com, saying that his new album would be much better. Some of those songs ended up on Rollercoaster; others, though, did not. I haven't managed to track down all the songs from Unsaid and Understood, but I do have a few; the sound quality, though, is subpar, and some of the songs didn't make the album for a reason, but at least one is better than a lot of the songs on it. I'll throw in a couple of more recent songs (also subpar audio quality), too.

Unsaid--I almost always prefer Jim's dance-oriented songs to his pop-rock numbers, but "Unsaid" is the exception; musically, it's one of my favorite of Jim's songs, even though it's not particularly fancy or revolutionary--just a catchy little chorus. Lyrically...I'm not sure--it sort of seems like there are conflicting messages in the song and, for a generally upbeat song, the idea of having to keep a secret seems out of place.

All I Am--less pop-rock but not really dancey, though it is beat-oriented. Subtlety isn't really Jim's thing (just to err on the safe side, it's nothing that'll phase the vast majority of people, I expect, but if you're under say, ten, probably not the song for you). I understand where he's going with this song, but I'm not sure that it works as well as it could; if it's viewed as a template for some of his later songs, though, it's a nice auditory representation of his "sound"'s evolution.

You Could Be (MMM)--sort of more pop-rock again (maybe tiny hints of jazz), though more laid-back.

Dirty Criminal--moving from pre-Rollercoaster to post-Rollercoaster, "Dirty Criminal" is another more dance-ish song, or at least faster. I think there's a higher quality version of it (and the following song) out there, but I don't have it. Though it doesn't really seem like a radio-friendly song, I can already picture a music video for it.

You Make It Better--more pop-rock, but I like this song (though I'm not sure how much I'll like it in high quality--it sounds like there's an awful lot of big intakes of breath in it), which makes me hopeful that, whenever Jim's second album comes out, the pop-rock will be as good as the dance-pop. The middle 8 is a nice switch-up that gives this mid-tempo song added speed (though not that much) and a good sense of urgency.

To buy Jim Verraros's debut album, Rollercoaster (which has none of these songs, but has some--though not all--very good songs), go here (physical) or iTunes; I'd also recommend the remixes of his songs, which, like his album, you can buy on iTunes even if you don't live in the U.S. I'm really looking forward to his next album--I think it'll be great--but I have no idea when it will be released (as of July 2006, producer Gabe Lopez was "working on" it).

Next up: probably some rock, but possibly an album review.

My little history of the pre-Rollercoaster era might have some mistakes in it, since that was before I cared about music and it's difficult to find information about, so feel free to correct me or fill me in!