The Jealous Kind

The '90s are long gone. But, hey, sixteen-year-old kids are still getting sad, right? So why not throw some pillow-soft vocal melodies about missed opportunities in love over sunrise guitars and piano and puppy-dog drums? This is a band that lists Counting Crows among its chief influences, and it would be hard to say that the duo isn't living up to self-imposed expectations. This is their story: Josh Queen lives here in Colorado and Dave Wright lives in Tennessee, and the two collaborate via e-mail. They describe their working relationship as "two friends making music together. That's the magic." Maybe, but sometimes labors of love just sound like inside jokes, and on this debut EP, the magic just isn't there. On the closing track, "Beautiful Regrets," Queen sings, "I'll be the one with good intentions and beautiful regrets." This could be one of them.