The lights are bright in Hollywood; they shine out somewhere, not right here

The ex-lead singer of my favorite American band has put a song up on his MySpace. My first thought was "oh, this is no 'Friday Night'...or 'Pop Princess'...or 'Catch Your Wave'...or..."--well, you get the idea. And it isn't--it doesn't have the hugely poppy catchy happy melodies that those songs have. However, I think I like it. Really like it. Could even see myself loving it. I don't think it would set the charts alight if it was his lead single, so hopefully it's not, but not only am I somewhat reassured (only somewhat, though), I'm actually impressed. Think a bit more epic than the aforementioned songs (that "epicness" doesn't really come in until the first chorus).

I would've loved it if the split led to me essentially getting two separate groups/artists releasing songs like those on the first album, but--and I'm shocking myself by saying this--I think I could live with this. We'll have to see what the rest of his stuff sounds like (it'd be just as easy for the album to be dull as great, just based on this one song, depending on the direction he chooses to go in), but I think I'm pleasantly surprised.

Low Quality MySpace Rip

You can visit his MySpace here.

For more about what his former band is doing, check The Zapping (and maybe peep at my super-long comment there for more details about their new lead singer).

I still wish they were all together, though--it was always going to be a difficult task to top their debut album, but changes in group members will probably mean a change in style, and make that even less likely. It's probably worth noting that the lead singer never did much of the songwriting (that was mainly Ben Romans), so the swap shouldn't necessarily lead to a change in sound, but it's a possibility.