Jungulous

You have to hand it to the varied cast of Hassidic reggae singer Matisyahu’s band for creating a scene all their own. Guitarist Aaron Dugan was the longest standing member of Matisyahu’s various ensembles and calls upon an impressive number of his onetime collaborators for his new solo album, Theory of Everything. Dugan is a fine guitarist, but on a dreamy, lackluster chant-along like “I’m on the Ocean,” it’s tough to sit through nearly seven minutes. In fact, Theory of Everything sounds like an album written for and by a guitarist, with his instrument dominating over somewhat subpar songwriting. He proves much more able when Matisyahu joins in on the dubby “Street Sweep.” When he teams up with Amy Carrigan on vocals, however, the Evan Dando/Juliana Hatfield thing is best left to others.