Editorial Reviews

This Canadian teen has been trumpeted as the next young buck guitar slinger in the mode of Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Jonny Lang. And while he shows off quite a bit of that virtuosity here, he also demonstrates a firm grasp of what makes a pop song really pop. Riabko has enough charisma to hold his own duetting with Liz Phair, as he does on the playful "Chemistry," and enough guts to take a swing at Prince-ish funk like "Doesn't Get Better Than This." He's probably at his best when leaning gently into a lightly percussive groove, acoustic guitar in tow -- the M.O. he deploys on the John Mayer–styled title track. On the other hand, he is capable of unleashing some pretty impressive fretwork when the situation calls for it, which he does on the peripatetic "Paranoid" (which isn't, for those who might be worried about such things, a cover of the Black Sabbath chestnut). While it might have been nice to hear Riabko cut loose a little more often over the course of Before I Speak, it sounds as if he's setting himself up to do that in the future -- a future that looks bright indeed. David Sprague, Barnes & Noble

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