Slow Runner albums. It's hard to decide which style of music Slow Runner specializes in, as the group alternates one minute from a Weezer-ish Moog synth power pop song to a Rufus Wainwright-ish piano piece. The group's leader is Michael Flynn, a chap who recently took second place at a John Lennon songwriting scholarship, who is joined by multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaler and bassist Danny Cassady. And since Flynn is the focal point, Slow Runner's sound focuses mainly on his voice and keyboard playing, while the songs remain at a mid-tempo pace for much of the album. Flynn's voice is a dead ringer for Thom Yorke's on "Everything Is Exactly What It Seems," approaches Ben Folds territory on the melancholy piano instrumental "Class of '86," and brings to mind the aforementioned Weezer on the album-opening title track (one of the album's few up-tempo tracks) and Rufus Wainwright on "The Sea Is Never Full." Despite possessing a sound that is derivative a times, Slow Runner sounds very little like the mainstream pop/rock sounds -- when was the last time you ...