Nuno-Schizophonic (A&M)

With Extreme lead singer Gary Cherone jumping ship to head up Van Halen, (which sadly at this point in time is only slightly less credible than Cherone's last side gig, touring with Jesus Christ Superstar) things are up in the air for the rest of the band, particularly the group's brain trust, songwriter/guitarist Nuno Bettencourt.

On Nuno's first solo project, he's taken some songs he's written in the past that didn't fall into Extreme's twin modes of balls to the wall rockers and slightly wimpy acoustic ballads.

The first three songs sound like business as usual for Nuno, but then the experimenting slips in, like the pissed off Matthew Sweet power chord pop of "What You Want" or the sproingy funk of "Fallen Angels" or the thrash punk of "2 Weeks In Dizkneelande." The vocals are a little distorted to mask Nuno's shortcomings as a singer, but musically, this is stronger than anything Nuno did with his old band. (2/97)