Heat [Deluxe Edition] [2 CD]

Born in the New York City borough of Queens and a longtime resident of the East Village, former D Generation frontman Jesse Malin has quietly slipped into the role of Big Apple bard. Starting with his 2002 solo debut, THE FINE ART OF SELF-DESTRUCTION, Malin cast himself as a latter-day Lou Reed. Two years on, follow-up THE HEAT features guest appearances by Ryan Adams, ex-Replacement Tommy Stinson, Pete Yorn, and Fountains of Wayne's Jody Porter. However, these guests don't distract from Malin or his tunes, as this punk-loving singer/songwriter's compositional prowess more than carries the record. Having written most of this album on the road, Malin uses the perspective of an outsider looking in to inform this batch of Manhattan-centric songs. The Byrds-flavored "Mona Lisa" finds cross-dressers and dope-dealers scrambling to survive in post-9/11 New York, while the losing gamblers and fame-starved teens of the John Lennon-influenced "God's Lonely People" find failure on the Left Coast. With THE HEAT, Jesse Malin has cemented his place in the NYC rock pantheon.