Cheese this may be, but boy is it the best damn refined $50 block of gouda you'll hear this year. Tomi Malm is a producer / songwriter who has been very active in Finland, Norway and Sweden's commercial music scene for over a decade and has made some seriously good connections to some of the best session players from Los Angeles in the process. This is his first solo outing, but he's got legendary cats involved including Vinnie Colaiuta of Frank Zappa fame on drums, plus Eric Marienthal and Brandon Fields on sax.

As far as passion projects, this particular brand of jazz-pop is a dying breed but done fantastically well at times. Favorites include 'Favor', where Frank Ådahl takes his gospel honed pipes to some pretty eye-popping places, and the title track where former Chicago singer Jason Scheff comes in with a killer chorus that puts his old band to shame. The ballads don't stand out to me quite as much as the uptempo cuts do, but Warren Wiebe (R.I.P.) is featured on 'Show Me A Sign' and reminds you why Celine Dion and Whitney Houston named him as their favorite singer at one point. He's up there with Steve Wonder in sheer vocal character.

Overall, this is a great record to indulge in if you are looking for classy songwriting from an older era without needless pretensions.