Tequila Moon

The solo album before Kuwana's breakthrough with “Sexual Violet No. 1” gives a clear sense of the voice that would make him a star. He could sing rock with both bite and an unusually assured stage presence. On Tequila Moon, though, he was equally willing to chase a tear-stained ballad or a looser groove.

“Dancing” is the album's strongest move: an urban blue-eyed-soul track with enough strut to call to mind the Boz Scaggs of “Lowdown.” “Central Park” leans into wistful pop rock. Kuwana was already testing the distance between those moods, and the record is most interesting when it lets them pull against each other.