*** HUB

VISIONS OF PLENTY

(Slash/London)

If you were around Boston in the '80s, you may remember Hub Moore as one of the two promising singer-guitarists in a band called Three Colors -- who also sported a promising sax player by the name of Dana Colley. Colley went on to join Morphine, Chris Hartford moved to NYC and has been quietly releasing the occasional solo album, and Moore, well, he just sort of disappeared, having gone about as far any smart, young, American guitar-pop dude could go in the '80s.

Now Moore's back as Hub, a smart, somewhat older, American guitar-pop dude based in NYC with friends like Dean Ween, Rollins Band alumnus Andrew Weiss, and Golden Palomino singer Lydia Kavanaugh all helping out on a disarmingly appealing debut CD. Hartford lends a hand too, pitching in as a producer and multi-instrumentalist, and sharing in the fun of covering the Replacements' moody gem "Swingin' Party." Like the solo Paul Westerberg, Moore's most affecting when his imperfect voice has something sadly beautiful or just plain sad to sing about, which is most of the time here. He gets a bit bluesy on "Evil Twin" and turns reflective and falsetto-y on "Sane," but mainly he generates a kind of low-key magnetism with glimpses of little tragedies like, as one tune puts it, "Two people moving further and further away from each other."

-- Matt Ashare