Michael Penn's debut album,
March, released in late 1989, served notice there was another talented Penn brother, in addition to actors Sean and Chris. The album kicks off with one of the top singles of the winter of 1989-1990, "No Myth," and proceeds through an engrossing myriad of folk-tinged ballads and up-tempo rockers. Despite several literary allusions and the ponderous title and lyrics of "Cupid's Got a Brand New Gun," on the whole,
Penn doesn't take himself too seriously. "Brave New World" is an absurd
Dylan-esque hodgepodge of rhyme, and "Big House" is devoted to the childhood prank of ringing doorbells, then running. The coda is "Evenfall," maybe the best '60s "frat rock" song since the '60s, with a horn section that makes you want to dance until the campus police close down the party. ~ Mark Morgenstein