With a wry smile, a jaunty kick and an eccentric sensibility, Thomas Dolby was a breath of fresh electro groove in the '80s music landscape with infectious songs like "She Blinded Me With Science" and "Hyperactive." After hopping off the pop rollercoaster in the '90s and becoming a sort of godfather of ring-tone culture, Dolby seems to have found a second wind as a live performer and imagineer, as this concert DVD attests. The 20-plus-year-old tunes on The Sole Inhabitant are still exciting, slightly puzzling and — more than anything — compositionally in line with the times. Fly-by-night electronica producers had better watch their backs and start elevating their knob twiddles in order to compete with such a charismatic artist. (thomasdolby.com) 4 stars
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2007.