Jesse Malin

The former singer of D Generation rocks a self-produced second solo album that starts with an electric 12-string jangle reminiscent of the Byrds. The songs aren't as catchy and driving as "Wendy" from Malin's first album, but they are more mature and wistful, as if he's been spending time with Ryan Adams. Oh wait. He has.

Under the eyeliner and CBGB-hardened sneer that Jesse Malin wore in D Generation was, in
fact, a Bowery cowboy -- a singing-storytelling tangle of Hank Williams, Joe Strummer, Neil
Young and the Ramones -- waiting to bust out. The Heat is liberation time: sharply drawn
slices of naked-city life, rich in scarred guitars and made vivid and personal by Malin's
cutting East Village-barfly yowl. These are familiar tales of lost women and runni... More >