11.10.2001

Cautions 6-Song CD Review
By Steev Riccardo
YourSound.com

One of the most memorable things about Boston's now defunct band January was Jeff Caglarcan nifty sounding guitar and songwriting. Caglarcan retains his nice guitar riffs as well as Drummer Chris Newbern in his newest effort, The Cautions. In fact he has cleaned his act a bit and gone for a more straight ahead (cleaner?) approach which borrows heavily from the eighties new wave explosion.

Joining up with Vocalist/Guitarist Eric Barao, who also adds a vintage synthesizer sound here and there, and Bassist Matt Boynton, the quartet is a solid one. They have a pop sound like we haven't heard since The Cars "Panorama" record and the Cautions make no bones about their roots, succeeding to win you over with catchy pop numbers.

The opening track "Coffee Shop Girl", which was penned by Caglarcan, is a real attention getter with the hooky "Got a thing for my coffee shop girl". The song is just quirky enough to make you want to sing a long. Although the remaining five songs on this six song CD all are pretty effective, they just don't match up with the frequent trips to see the "coffee shop girl", not that they are not good mind you.

The Cautions have carved a fine little nitch for themselves with their revisit to the days of The Records and The Knack and if you want to think modern day perhaps the first Weezer record. It will be interesting to see where their journey takes them from here, which is very good place to start.