Concerts

Cris Cab's EP-release party at Grand Central June 4

C'mon, why aren't you a fan of reggae-ish soul pop played by white guys with acoustic guitars?

Do John Mayer's douchey jokes make you wanna knock his perfectly coiffed hair off his perfectly shaped head? Do Jason Mraz's sugary vocal croaks cause your ears to bleed uncontrollably? Do Jack Johnson's naked, hairy, beach-bum toes drive you to the edge of vomiting?

Well, whatever your problem with this particular brand of pale-faced balladry, there's a reasonable compromise for you, and his name is Cris Cab. He's an 18-year-old singer-songwriter from Miami with a good hairdo and a decently shaped skull. His singing voice is silky without any unnecessarily affected flourishes. And most important, he almost always wears closed-toe shoes.

Plus he has shown a knack for shrugging off the wimp factor, making friends with Pharrell Williams, tossing some hip-hop flavor into the mix, and covering rap hits such as Wiz Khalifa's ode to athletics, "Black and Yellow," while still dropping sweet summertime anthems, like "Good Girls," that don't suck.