Mando Saenz: Bucket

Following the success of his last album, Mando Saenz sounds far more confident in his material beginning with the light and gorgeous “Wrong Guy” that sounds like some mash-up of The BoDeans and The Jayhawks. However, Saenz still has his strong roots rock and pop sensibilities as is easily evident on the catchy, smart and radio-friendly “Pocket Of Red” that is equal parts Tim Finn as it is Keith Richards. Throughout it all, Saenz never drops the ball. Hell, he never comes close during the strong “A Touch Is All”. If there’s one snag with the record, it might be how he mines basically a lot of the same musical terrain during songs like “Seven Dollars” that is basically Americana 101. The same is also quite true of “I Don’t Like It” which is hard not to lap up, recalling a track Ryan Adams got around too but never entirely perfected. Regardless of this at times little pet peeve, the musician nails most of these songs out of the park, especially the rich “Come Out Tonight” with its string accents and the alt.country leanings fuelling “Candy Red”.