Had Bob Dylan been born several decades later, he might have sounded a lot like Kyle Andrews at first. (Then again, the course of music might have been significantly different if Dylan had been born several decades later, but indulge me for the sake of argument.) Amos in Ohio is the singer-songwriter's debut, fittingly re-recorded and re-released by Badman after a smaller scale release on Fictitious Records in late 2005, and it sees Andrews in an intimate setting: him, his guitar, a drum machine, occasional synth, and his raw, sometimes strained voice, the latter of which seems to be the key characteristic in any mental associations with Dylan. A rotating cast of drummers and bassists join him on nearly every song, but make no mistake, these performers are acting as extensions of Andrews himself. The disc is entirely his through and through.

The title track is a fantastic opening to Amos in Ohio. It's an alluring acoustic tune delicately spiced with backing vocals, faltering falsettos, light electronica, a country-blues guitar vamp, and the addictive confessional refrain, "Everything's fine/ but I think I'm losing my mind/ … in Cleveland," with Cleveland pronounced "Cleave-laynd." "Moon Tea," which follows, plugs in to the amp for a gritty mover with yet another addictive refrain, though it's a bit of a disappointment to find that it runs: "Give me the mumps and I'll give you the plague." This line just doesn't mesh with the music, making it seem out of place and disingenuous. The album begins to weaken with "Tester Bunny," in which Andrews sings in a deliberately pathetic, limp, and downright irritating manner about disjointed high school memories. One girl in particular is at the center of this recollection; Andrews tells her, using a standard rock cliché with a standard rock couplet, "Angel, you got me high/ and I don't know why." "Music from an Adjacent Car" is a bit too artificially anthemic, a clumsy and overelaborate mimicking of Josh Rouse. "Connecting the Dots" continues the shaky soundalike contest, this time with Isaac Brock's Ugly Casanova.

The return to simplicity with "Tree Hugger," the seventh of thirteen tracks, brings Amos in Ohio back onto far more stable ground, gradually working up to the strengths displayed at the outset via the toe-tapping, hand-clapping "Self-Help Tapes" (newly recorded for this re-release), "Lake Erie Lament" (another Rouse-sounding tune, but with a timeless appeal), and the exquisitely beautiful optimistic closer, "Shower with the Sun Shining in." So although it sags and strains a little in the middle, Amos in Ohio starts and ends with enough good-to-outstanding tracks to make it an album worthy of whatever hype is dished out on its behalf. – Eric J. Iannelli (2006, The Daily Copper)