Jim Painton makes music that makes you feel good. He has a keen sense of rock history and borrows favorably from some of the best, ie. Beatles, Zappa, Brian Wilson, and Gary Lewis & The Playboys. Great melodies and clever word plays. You know he loves his music and that comes out loud and clear.

All music is derivative, more or less, for better or worse. Accepting that, one of the values that makes good music good is it's ability to send you rummaging through your dusty cabinets to re-listen to the wonderful stuff you listened to in your youth but haven't touched for decades due to competing distractions such as finishing grad school, getting married, raising kids, launching a career, making a difference while making the mortgage, helping *your* kids reach grad school and/or get married, and planning your exit strategy. By this standard, Jim Painton's first CD is great music! After the second playing of "Painton a Picture" the first thing I rummaged for was 'How Could I Be Such a Fool' ("I always wondered if I could write a love song." --F.Z.), then on to vintage Floyd, Who, Byrds, Zombies, and Beach Boys' Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) (which I've played through maybe twice since 1970) and thence to the '60's aberration of Kweskin-Mouldar-D'Amato-Richmond (on jug) and the deviant Dan Hicks & his Lickettes, pausing for the Harper's Bizarre doing Van Dyke Parks along my vinyl voyage. Good music is, indeed, a great appetizer! Jim's work is also very courageous -- a real musical departure: original, diverse, fresh, funny, in ways not unlike the novelty that made "Freak Out" so interesting back in '67. And not only is his music amazing in its production, it's also very clever, which I didn't get until the last track ended and I hit 'Play' once more -- whooshwhooooshwhooooosh...sucked right back into the Painton whirlpool to hear it all over again. Nice work, Jim! You've got my vote for a place in the PSML Pantheon alongside Phillips, Cathcart, Carpenter, Macreavy, "and a whole bunch of other people who are going to be bugged because their names aren't listed in detail, with addresses and pertinent facts about what they like about the government & their other fetishes." (-- F.Z., "Freak Out" liner notes). Recommendation: BUY IT. NOW! Patrick McClellan, Lurker, Pet Sounds Mailing List

Got "Painton A Picture" this morning! Great stuff. I've yet to fully digest the kooky, totally f---ed-up mind set of the record, but I'm finding it fascinating, funky and funny! Is Jim an XTC and Jellyfish fan perhaps? (If not, he would be!) Sounds like ELO on Prozac. That's a big compliment.

What can I say? Ever since I received it, it's not been off the cd deck. It's refreshingly different, a reminder of the days when popular music was about innovation and imagination and you'd pick up an album with that sense of excitement about the direction it could take you. 'Painton A Picture' is slick and accessible enough to be mainstream, with echoes of ELO, Nilsson, even Lennon. But it rewards play after play. I find myself humming snatches in the most unlikely places, and it takes a lot to do that these dull grey days! Cheers, Rob King The Daily Star London, England