Wakey! Wakey!
Salvation
(MummaGrubbs Records/Thirty Tigers)
Wakey! Wakey! frontman Michael Grubbs sang in the choir while he was a kid and that gospel tradition shows up in the band's music. It's apparent right from the opening notes of "All It Takes Is a Little Love," the first track on the band's first studio effort in four years. "Through the Night" features guttural vocals but benefits from cooing backing vocals and an infectious synthesizer riff and the retro-sounding "Stop the World" has a good bouncy beat to it as well. Even when Grubbs gets all touchy feely on the sparse "I Like You," the song works because he takes such a direct approach and sounds so fricking giddy. Known for his role as "Grubbs" on the TV show One Tree Hill, Grubbs shows he's more than just another actor-turned-musician with this solid effort.
