An Angle

It’s always exciting to watch, or listen rather, to an artist come into his or her own — to see them evolve from a rock star wannabe to musician to artist and maybe in the end, to a music god of the "we’re not worthy” variety. With the release of their third album, The Truth Is That You Are Alive, Kris Anaya and his An Angle band are currently lingering somewhere around the "artist” phase. Anaya’s starting to get a feel for what he’s about, what he does well and what he wants to say — all the little details that need to be ironed out before an artist can climb the next step along the stairway to musical heaven. The Truth is definitely An Angle’s best work to date but as of yet, their best work is just pretty good. Aside from a couple of dull, paint-by-numbers tracks and some questionable lyrical choices, An Angle have put together a pretty respectable, if inconsistent, album. It’s almost as though the disc was assembled by at least three different musicians, each having contributed a couple of tracks markedly dissimilar from those of his counterparts. With a few pop tracks, a couple of folk songs and some acoustic numbers, The Truth is an interesting listen but it’s also evidence of Anaya’s struggle to find An Angle’s unique sound. Here’s hoping he eventually does.