Steely Dan and Todd Rundgren Meet Andrew Lloyd Webber

Yes, this is quite a mixture of style, never quite sounding like rock but really, it does. There is a solid beat, but the swing is strong, and the lyrical flow drives the real rhythm to theatrical extremes.

It is not chaos, it is intricate elaboration that rules here. First there are all these side melodies that stick the verse/chorus/bridge like jazz glue together. I almost feel there would be no song left were all that stripped away, but there is a song under it all to be sure, and it sounds like it could be part of a Broadway musical. It doesn't have the thematic lead song thing going, but it could be this character's song who is probably the seedy guy leaning on the unscrupulous side.

There are instrumentally some wow moments, say 3:05 and that electric lead guitar, impressively played, but it is almost lost in all the constant activity.

The sound seemed a little too compressed at times, almost muffling, but I will say that it never interfered with the intelligibility, so it was not a showstopper.

Ambitious and daring, not warm and fuzzy, interesting and not inspiring, a little dark and high brow, and believe it or not still quite fun.