Philadelphia’s Bobbie Morrone has just released his new EP, The Best I Can Be. With just three songs, and coming in at a little over ten minutes long, The Best I Can Be is a pleasant little offering. With a lot of fedora’d-folkies like Jason Mraz littering the mainstream today, competition is tough, but there just may be enough actual talent and individuality in Morrone to make him stand out from the pack. Just the fact that he actually tends to use an electric guitar and is backed by a full band, as on “Make You Scream,” makes this reviewer happy. It’s obvious he’s versed in jazz and has enough of a background with it, and it is this that immediately separate Morrone from the majority.
Occasionally, Morrone drifts towards American Idol monotony and the love-it-or-hate-it humdrum of Jack Johnson, but there are enough interesting ideas and subtle dissonance for those looking for something more that this will probably end up being the perfect kind of music to play when you see your mother. The songs are injected enough with different progressions and surprising melodies, and as on “Long Way Down,” the production is enhanced enough with little atmospheric touches that Morrone will gain more credibility than most of his contemporaries today.
For someone whose own tastes typically lay outside of artists like Morrone, I was happily satisfied with his music. It’s something that very few people will say they don’t like, because there’s a little bit of something in it for everyone and it will be pleasing on some level for almost anyone. Undoubtedly, there will be even more that will be unabashedly in love with it like those that follow aforementioned Johnson or John Mayer. It’s hard to get a complete grasp of his sound from only three songs, but there’s already enough of an immediate consistency in these fleeting minutes that make Morrone one to watch.
