*** Five for Fighting

AMERICA TOWN

(Aware/Columbia)

John Ondrasik -- the one-man show behind the Five for Fighting moniker -- has a voice whose emotive edge suggests Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, and, at times, when his singing soars loftily, U2's Bono. It's a tone that implies a serious agenda, and perhaps that's what one should expect from a prodigy who started playing piano at the age of two and went on to train as an opera singer before earning a BA in applied mathematics. Supported mainly by piano and strings, the songs on America Town are grave, pensive, even haunted. When in the tender ode to his wife and child, "Something About You," Ondrasik does find a rare happy moment, the California native is careful to note that his joy has "been a long time coming." He forgoes introspection to rock a little on the Who-ish guitar-driven "Boat Parade" and the hero-worshipping anthem "Michael Jordan." But the mood here is set by not one but two songs about suicide -- "Easy Tonight" and "The Last Great American" -- that mark America Town as a reflective, somewhat dour alternative to merely soothing adult pop.

-- Linda Laban