You are forgiven if you never heard of Andy Reed, but you would do yourself a favor and pick up the excellent debut “Fast Forward.” You’ll hear the Roger Manning Jr. vibe in the opener “The Ballad of….” to start things off with an excellent melody and Beatles-styled guitar and drum work. Andy has a sweetness to his melodies that brings to mind McCartney and Curt Boettcher with a simple piano and acoustic guitar. “The Criminal” has a good story to tell as well, about broken promises and sacrifice for that one true love, and a gentle strum that reminds me of The Cyrkle or The Free Design. After the beautifully sparse ballad “Play,” we get to “Novocaine” – a melancholy song about the singer’s weariness and loss of confidence, much like a Gram Parsons ballad. “Thank You” is straight from the Pete Ham playbook, a song of earnest joy and love and accented by electric guitars. “Tied Up” has those little synth touches like The Cars, but the song is closer Weezer or Fountains of Wayne in spirit. The odd song out here is “Around the Town” with a mix of Michael Carpenter-like melody, handclaps and old piano sound. A good song, but Andy’s vocals are too laid back for the tempo. The vocals are much better served on the closer “Are You Listening?” a fine Beatlesque mid-tempo ballad with a nice guitar solo that fades out at the end. There is plenty of great pop here, although we are a bit low on the “power” scale, fans who flip for multi-layered music with melody and harmony at the forefront will want this for sure.