Bob Guiney 3 Sides CD

Personnel: Bob Guiney (vocals); Kirk Reedy, Andy Patalan (guitar); Matt Jackson (bass); Scott Stefanski (drums).
Personnel: Bob Guiney (vocals); Mark Meyers, Kirk Reedy, Andy Patalan, Kyle Neely (guitar); Scott Stefanski, Mike Purcell, Marc Slutsky, Brad Trimas, Jeff Gensterblum (drums).
Audio Mixers: David Thoener; Michael Barbiero; Brian Malouf.
Recording information: Avatar Studios, New York, NY.
Photographer: James Patrick Cooper.
Long before he was "Bachelor Bob" on the popular ABC reality show, Bob Guiney fronted a regionally successful college rock band called Fat Amy, which had a fairly loyal following in the Midwest. With his passion for songwriting and singing and his good fortune at being thrust into the homes of millions of TV viewers, a solo album was inevitable, and luckily the results are good. Neatly balanced between heavily produced romantic modern rock songs and a handful of his old band's heavier tunes, 3 Sides holds together much better than many would expect. The radio-ready tracks ("Girlfriend," "So Wrong," "Temporary Life") fit nicely in the vein of Semisonic and Matchbox Twenty, and Guiney's growling croon is even reminiscent of Rob Thomas' dreamy, tortured balladeer's tone. The album really shines during the less clean, more raw rock numbers like "The Craziest Girl I Know," "Fortunate," and the terrific slow burn of "Come Undone." On these tunes, Guiney really seems as though he lets himself go, stripping away the afternoons on Oprah's couch and rose ceremonies, letting the raw emotion and his genuine love of singing pour through. The exact opposite could be said of the unfortunate misstep "Spare Minute," which replaces Guiney's capable singing voice with a faux-rap that sounds wildly out of place. Luckily, this clumsy fit is the only real clunker on the album, and the rest of the songs lock together with a real thread of continuity, despite the fact that the roots of some of the songs are nearly ten years old. While 3 Sides is not The Most. Dramatic. CD. Ever, it is an admirable stab at emotional radio-friendly rock that will certainly satisfy those who swooned over his TV persona and hopefully win over listeners who are willing to listen past his smoochy bachelor image. ~ Zac Johnson
Ah, the power of television. Bob Guiney is a familiar name from his starring role in ABC's THE BACHELOR, but his former career was based around a struggling Midwest band called Fat Amy, who failed to secure a record deal from Creed's label Wind-Up Records in the late 1990s. Fast forward to 2003, when Guiney gained nationwide exposure on reality TV, and managed to get both the record deal and the girl.
So how's the music? Well, it's surprisingly good. An appealing collection of sensitive rock in the Matchbox 20 vein, 3 SIDES kicks off, appropriately enough, with "Girlfriend," a tune in the mold of the classic lonely-on-the road song. The album's spare production, devoid of any pitch-altering trickery, points up an obvious confidence in Guiney's vocal prowess. In fact, his voice is more appealing than anyone would expect from a reality TV star, conjuring Rob Thomas on the spare, haunting "Bleed On" and the anthemic "So Wrong." Perhaps, like Rick Springfield, Bob Guiney will come to be known as the rock star who just happened to get his start on television.