I sort of ended up with a stack of these CDs by accident, as quirky bedroom pop obviously falls outside of the general metallurgic scope here at Crucial Blast, but despite that I gotta say that Deano Marino's baby Crocodiles is one of the cooler lo-fi/weirdo pop albums I've heard lately. And certainly one of the catchiest. Deano Marino is just one dude, armed with a guitar, serious chops, killer quirky lyrics and an upbeat outsider vibe, along with some bona fide 80's dance pop casios and drum machines. The CD opens with "Axolotl", probably the catchiest song on the album, a short little pop tune with a genuinely awesome hook and hazy acid guitars. After this, Merino moves from psychedelic pop to squalls of guitar noise, multiple drum machines scuttling over top of one another, gorgeous reverb-soaked surf instrumentals, with every song holding at it's center a great pop hook despite the weird instrumentation and spacey effects that are prominent throughtout the album. Fans of early Ween, Guided By Voices, Half Japanese, Sebadoh, and other closet pop artisans should check this out. Packaged in a swank Dual Plover gatefold sleeve with felt lining.