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What’s refreshing about singer-songwriters like Bill Mallone, the former frontman of Athens’s Vigilantes of Love, is that they say exactly what they mean. Even if it’s just that they’re ridiculously messed up and confused. On his first solo album, Mallone calculates the fuzzy math of love, and it never seems to come out quite right on these dozen songs. Relationships are earned with scars and pricked by uncertain futures; at their best they’re as dizzying as psychotropic drugs. The rest is melody and texture. Mallone knows how to phrase his lyrics, doing much with his narrow vocal range. He knows how to color basic pop-rock chord changes with appealing layers of guitar and keyboards, so as to make for a smoother, more articulate sound than that of the Vigilante’s guitar snarl. And the sense of urgency in the twang of his Southern-accented singing gives the falling-in-love ballad "Crescent Moon" a larger sense of awakening. (Bill Mallone performs this Thursday, October 23,at the Sky Bar; call 617-623-5223.)
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