Reviews and Appraisals: Tom McCaffrey's Lou Diamond Phillips?By: Neil Padover

Tom McCaffrey's album goes on sale nationwide today--it's available now at fine online convenience stores like Amazon and iTunes. Contributor Neil Padover got his hands on a hard copy a while ago and gave it a couple rotations. It might still be spinning in his Discman for all we know.

REVIEW
Tom McCaffrey loves 80's movies, doesn't pay his phone bill, and he really, really hates helping his friends move. A lot. In his debut album, Lou Diamond Phillips? McCaffrey doesn't make any grand statements about politics or the twenty-something struggle. He just focuses on what he does best: telling jokes. The album, at times self-deprecating, at others self-obsessed, captures perfectly our simultaneous fascination and hatred for everything pop-culture. McCaffrey brilliantly picks apart commercials for the Marines and JC Penney in the simplest way he knows: by using their own words against them. He is a master at dissecting common phrases and unpacking them until we look like complete idiots. It's part of his charm and what makes this so much fun to listen to over and over again. He is unabashed about calling out everyone that speaks and acts without thinking about how they come across (from a friend who claims a song "changed his life" to devoted rocker groupies who will please a roadie just to get a chance with the band). The best part of the album--and I mean this sincerely--is that it isn't as heavily produced as other CDs. We can hear distinct audience members' laughs throughout. The hesitations and bungled segues only add to the authenticity of the record. Recorded for a diehard crowd on the Lower East Side, Lou Diamond Phillips? is raw, it's real, and it's hilarious.