Socialburn - Where You Are (2003)

Close your eyes and enjoy what could easily be a batch of previously unreleased Nirvana tracks. Open your eyes, and receive a big surprise in the form of Florida quartet Socialburn's debut album WHERE YOU ARE. This is far from the first time the band has been compared to Seattle's finest and it probably won't be the last. In particular, singer Neil Alday's vocal resemblance to the late Kurt Cobain is uncanny. Nirvana fans who've felt a post-IN UTERO void in their lives are strongly advised to seek solace in the updated-grunge sound of WHERE YOU ARE, overseen by Creed/Puddle of Mudd producer John Kurzweg. The songs themselves don't seek to replicate Cobain's work, however; they take many of their own melodic twists and turns. And these lads are nowhere near as audibly angst-ridden; three of them even own up to being former Homecoming Kings! So there's less of a barbed-wire-psyche vibe going on here, but still plenty of tuneful modern rock that casts one wistful eye back at the glory days of flannel shirts and baggy shorts.