Shalini - We Want Jelly Donuts

Artist: Shalini Title: We Want Jelly Donuts Catalog#:Parasol-CD-059 Price: $7.50	Tracks on this CD:
	Telepathic World
	Get Free
	Creepy Emily
	Pandora at Sea
	Emotion Bomb
	This is Telluride
	Conviction Overturned
	Desperate for Dawn
	Around The Eyes
	Destination Anywhere Else

Signs and bumper stickers with the acronym "WWJD" are prevalent in Shalini's North Carolina environs. What Would Jesus Do? Shalini's translation of said acronym is the title to her debut solo CD, We Want Jelly Donuts. This seems an apt analog to Shalini's breezy view of rock music.

Following the late '80s regional success in the Madison, Wisconsin based Kissyfish, Shalini headed to San Francisco where she played in various bands as a side person before starting her own project dubbed Vinyl Devotion. The band name survived a move to Winston-Salem, North Carolina as Shalini attracted new members for the 1997 Parasol CD release of Floor Model. CMJ New Music Report enthused that Vinyl Devotion "…demonstrates a pop proficiency similar to that of current bands…wowing listeners with her classic sounding vocals," and Jud Cost writing in Magnet said elements sounded "…like a clattering '90s update of the urban heartbreak always so appealing in those mid-'60s girl-group hits by the Paris Sisters and the Shangra-Las."

Since the release of Floor Model Shalini has redesigned the group to renew its focus and move forward under the name Shalini. Floor Model producer Mitch Easter has expanded his role on We Want Jelly Donuts to contributing original material and vocals. His four songs mark Easter's re-entry into releasing music of his own creation.

We Want Jelly Donuts offers consistent variety. With its kitchen sink recording approach (tympani included!) and engaging vocal melodies, the Easter-penned lead-off track "Telepathic World," is a great introduction to inner workings of WWJD. The folk-rock, almost Byrdsian, undertone of "Get Free" is juxtaposed against the heavier live favorite "Creepy Emily" and the space-y/hypnotic "Emotion Bomb." Also of note is "This is Telluride"-based on Christie Brinkley's plane crash and her life thereafter.

The album closes with "Destination Anywhere Else," a theme maybe familiar to those who drive around…maybe in the Southeast USA…maybe behind vehicles that sport bumper stickers that read "WWJD?"