While I make a point of singing Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA" (aka "Proud To Be An American") every morning when I wake up, Jim Noir's Tower of Love, which is just now seeing US release (August 8th on Barsuk Records), has me a little bit wishing I was singing "God Save The Queen". Why? Well if I had been waking up singing that song everyday than it wouldn't have taken me the extra year and three months to discover this album from Jim Noir. The US release does include two bonus tracks ("Tell Me What to Do" and "Climb a Tree") to help soften the blow, however.

On Tower of Love Noir uses his uncanny pop ability to create thirteen instantly enjoyable tracks. While the songs are certainly strong enough to stand up to a performance of just guitar and vocals, what makes them truly enjoyable are the layers of vocal harmonies and supporting instrumentation. The album grabs your attention from the opening moments of "My Patch" and just doesn't let go until the closing "The Only Way". There really isn't much more to be said, it's just brilliant.