Viki Nova -wt Catch Me If You Can! -wl TFY -wf Washington, DC-based Viki Nova debuts with an album of self-made radio rock in the vein of Michelle Branch and Sheryl Crow, proving you don’t need a big corporation under your belt to make music for the masses. Songs like “I’m Yours,” “Addicted” and “If You Didn’t Need Me” show Nova to be an above-average composer of middle-of-the-road pop rock, delivering her energetic songs with sassy vocals and a charming presence. -wm Rich Isaac’s production is fine, but it might have been a good idea to use some outside mixing and mastering assistance to clear up the job, seeing that the music tends to blur a bit in the background, missing some vital punch and attack. As it is, Catch Me If You Can! suffers from its indistinct and unvaried sound, and also from Nova’s rather uneven songwriting. Many of the songs quite simply fall a bit short of the absolute top moments here. -wm Viki Nova apparently quit her day job to focus on a career in music, and there’s no doubt she could go far with a bit of luck on her side. This is anything but original-sounding, but then again, originality is hardly what Nova is aiming for. Instead, she’s made an album of charming and likeable college rock, occasionally very good and certainly no worse than most of the artists she emulates. The album’s finest moments deserve every bit of attention regularly bestowed on her more established sisters in college rock. -wd TFY Records: http://www.tfyrecords.com/ -wb Stein Haukland