Life and Rhymes, by Phil Angotti

Midwestern rocker Phil Angotti dishes sweet sunshine on a disc redolent of 1970s pop textures à la Todd Rundgren and the Raspberries—though “Goodbye Never Said” has a timeless chamber-pop quality, aided by a dash of strings. “My Life in Rhymes,” propelled by Romantics drummer Brad Elvis, sums up Angotti’s artistic calling in less than four minutes, while “Daddy’s Country Records” japes like Shel Silver­stein. Thanks to Buck Owens and Johnny Cash, says Angotti, “I learned how to love and fight and swear when I was three.”