Athenaeum was a band that had a huge impact on my life in the late 90's, and they're still a band I listen to frequently, so of course I was extremely ecstatic to hear that Mark Kano was finally releasing a solo CD.  Will it live up to my hopes and expectations?  Will the existing Athenaeum fans welcome Mark on his own?  Those two questions can easily be answered after just a few minutes into the CD (which will be released on February 27, 2009). 

 

     Not much has changed with Mark's sound, in fact if I didn't know any better, I would have sworn this was a new Athenaeum album.  Some will say that an artist not growing or changing over the years is a bad thing, but I do not, why change something that was nearly perfect in the first place?

 

So far "Walking on Broadway" is the best album of 2009, it may be a little early to tell since it's only February, but this will be a hard album to beat over the coming months.