In Brief
Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic)
*** 1/2 Vinnie James, “All American Boy,” Cypress/RCA. This black, Orange County-based rocker debuts with a set of charged, passionate, mostly politicized songs that attack racism and other injustices. Besides abundant energy and often imaginative approaches to big issues, James shows a keen pop instinct as he sets his raw, R&B-tinged; vocals (lots of Graham Parker in there) against spare, bristling folk-rock arrangements.
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