Doffing his hard rock side for a dozen songs, Brian Grosz comes through with Bedlam Nights (click to buy), a personal, imperfect, rather beautifully damaged album. Grosz may look like a beefier Daughtry with a Tom Waits swagger on his album cover, but on disc he sounds a thousand times more real than the manufactured star.

"Lady On The Low" has a minimalist percussive groove similar to PJ Harvey's "Rid of Me" but with a more sexual air about it, and the cigarette-stained tracks between it and the cover of Portishead's "Roads" howl and wail with an emotion and spirit that was entirely unexpected after reading Grosz's one-sheet. As if Portishead weren't gloomy enough, Grosz adds another layer of cloudiness to the sadness.

Tags: Album Reviews, Brian Grosz, New York