Jim Boggia is a talented singer/songwriter who combines modern songwriting with the best of old school pop melodies.

Safe In Sound could be the title of Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter Jim Boggia's life story, not just the name of his bluhammock music debut. As he often likes to explain to reporters, "I've been told that I was singing melodies before I started speaking words, and I started playing the guitar when I was five. I have no conception of a life before music." Jim is the kind of hyper-kinetic guy who may never need an iPod because he's already got instant recall of practically every song he's ever heard and loved.

Jim's unabashed love for pop music of all sorts - the cool, the classic, the corny - informs his own meticulously constructed, immediately engaging songs. But he's more than just a facile craftsman; his songs are deeper, sometimes darker and more seriously romantic than his pop-trivia playfulness might suggest. Once you've finished admiring his vintage- sounding arrangements, you can start appreciating the very contemporary emotions he's describing. Like his friend and occasional collaborator Aimee Mann, with whom he co-wrote the opening track "Shine," Jim's an exceptionally smart songwriter with an eye and ear for affecting details.

While the album was in many ways shaped by his life in Philadelphia, Jim chose to record it in Los Angeles, where Coryell and Zook work. As he says, "I thought it would be nice to get away, so that for a few weeks I'm not dealing with real life, just with the music. I had never done anything like this before and maybe I won't do it this way again. The next time will probably be a combination of home and away." In the studio, Jim felt free to experiment with any sound-making equipment he could find, from Mellotron, Moog and Optigon to slinkys, megaphones and bouncing basketballs. What he's created with his gizmos, guitars and incredible knack for melody is a collection of 12 tunes - plus one rainstorm and a goofy hidden track - as addictive and enduring as the classics he memorized as a child, a gift from his head to yours.

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