Paper Planes, vol. 1 (there's also a vol. 2 in the can) includes truly beautiful sounds. Alex Rodiek's trumpet on "A Week of Rain," for example, is especially lovely. Young sings these eleven songs with a sweet, airy vocal style that is as expressive as it is easy on the ears. Sure, in some spots it veers a little towards yacht rock. However, there's also much good to be said about 70s soft-rock, and Kicklighter draws much of what's good about that period's music but avoids the lame stuff.

One called "Bittersweet" is just that, both musically and lyrically, as Young writes biographically. While trumpet colors "A Week of Rain," a fuller horn section augments "Four-leaf Clover." There's a brightness to these songs that lift them above the dark clouds that too often color contemporary music. This world could really use more Kicklighter music right about now.