Coffee and Beer (www.stevemardon.com, 2002)

It's an age-old axiom "Write what you know" and one that Bostonian Steve Mardon has obviously taken to heart. Fortunately for us, the things that Mardon knows are things that all of us are familiar with, things like workplace crushes ("New Girl at the Office") trying to get your stuff back after a break-up ("CD Song") and - on the title track - America's two favorite beverages.

But most of us are not as adept at extracting the wit from these mundane moments of life as Mister Mardon. He is especially gifted at clever turns of phrases and unexpected rhymes like "We're always on a hiatus, how can you be such a sadist?" (on "Distracted") and "Diamonds, et cetera, I woulda bought her,/we coulda had a son or a daughter / Instead she's nothing but lyrical fodder" (from "I Couldn't Have Done it Without You") - not to mention the plethora of words ending in -unk on "When I'm Drunk." And he should probably continue to exploit that talent since the only weak track on this eight-song CD "Smiles and Laughs and Dances" is the one where he plays it totally straight.