Clint Maedgen can play sax, clarinet, piano and sing. He has conceived of numerous intelligent, provocative musical acts including (but not limited to) the New Orleans Bingo! Show. On Open Restraints, he presents his least conceptual project—Clint Maedgen, rock ‘n’ roll guy. The strength of it: Maedgen’s enough of a songwriter to write six good songs, and he’s obviously enjoying mixing it up with the big guitars. The downside: the world’s full of rock ‘n’ roll guys. Heard as part of the Clint Maedgen oeuvre—which I think is how we’re to think of it—it’s a cool detour, more pop and straightforward than Liquidrone but more muscular than Bingo! or his strings project. We’ve known that he can dress up a song with theatrical devices; Open Restraints shows that he can also simplify them and let a strong melody emerge from conventional instrumentation. As a stand-alone project, it’s a good rock ’n’ roll, but there’s also a lot of good rock ‘n’ roll in the world.