Radio America Raise High. Release Date : June, 2006. Label: Mother West/ Paper Cup. Rating: Great vocals. (Screw points. To each his own!) While initially there's nothing that really outwardly grabs me musically about Radio*America's album, I do have to say the vocals are pretty striking. Not the melodies they keep so much, but rather, the scruffy, strained quality of the voice itself is intriguing. It's a good, raw punkrock voice. It appears though that this is a pretty young band, so the chops should develop to the point where in the next few years, these guys will be putting out some super-solid and interesting genre-bending tunes. They just aren't quite there yet in a well-rounded sense. Great foundation. They have a cool lo-fi sound - I'm not sure how much of that is intentional and how much of it is simply lower-budget recording, but it comes off sounding cool, so they got away with it either way. I like how "Courtesy of the Red White + Blue" breaks down in the middle to let that cool voice ring out. It has an intensity not unlike Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes. A bit of development and I would like to see where these cats are at. Song of choice : I like the lo-fi shimmer of "Mahabharata." -Andy Scheffler Elsewhere Radio America website Published : January, 2007.