Rhythm & Booze An online music webzine created by music lovers for music lovers.

Warren Dean is a pseudonym for an anonymous 27 year old  London based rock musician who set out trying to fund an album via the contributions of the general public when he took his music to the streets busking. Warren was interested in whether he could get his music heard in a world where X-Factor and image dominate the music scene.

Warren sang his heart out from Plymouth to Aberdeen, Brighton to Cambridge and everywhere inbetween, eventually after barely making minimum wage from day to day, a kind hearted studio owner allowed him to pay via his collected coins and Warren realised his ambition by recording Who Is Warren Dean? The aim now is to take the album and his music to the national charts and see where he can go from there.

Now when I first read about the concept behind the album I have to say I was intrigued yet more than a little fearful, reading the accompanying bumf that arrived alongside the disc, did make the Warren Dean project sound like something of a vanity project and I was half expecting watered down middle of the road pop rock to be the order of the day, but by the end of the first track my trepidation subsided and my expectations blown apart.

The lead track, Turn is actaully s bonafided grungey rocker complete with head shaking, musucular, driving riffs, slighty detuned bass, motoring beats and a stunning, infectious alternative rock holler that the attention. Warren proves that Turn is no mere one off by following up with Hide, a combination of prime grunge era Seattle guitars and Warren delicious disillushioned slacker vocals

From here highlights flow effortlessy from the pen and guitar of Warren, in the shape of the complex love square in the shape of Menage A Quatre, the stripped down, addicitive acoustic strum of Un-Named Blond with it’s instant melody and undenible pop charm and the gentle croon, nimble guitar work and harmony assisted Pride In Me to name but three.

The album as a whole is a pretty damn collection of stripped acoustic laments and ballsy alternative rockers and though Warren may not have the most original sound in the world, he does know how to pen a catchy tune and lay down an impressive lick or two.

So I might not be able to tell you who the real Warren Dean is but what I can tell you is that his gritty grungey rock and hook laden melodic acoustic odes are well worth further investigation.

Rhythm & Booze Rating 8

www.warrendean.net