Death Cab For Cutie / The Photo Album / Barsuk If there were one major criticism to be levied against We Have the Facts And We're Voting Yes, it would be that the record simply didn’t have enough oomph. Sure, the songs were well recorded and smartly crafted, and Ben Gibbard’s lyrics were wry and self-deprecating, but on the whole it lacked any real punch. Fortunately, this malady has been all but alleviated on The Photo Album. Gibbard’s lyrics still pack the same emotional wallop, and Chris Walla’s production is still pristine...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Drag City Super Session / Tramps, Traitors and Little Devils / Drag City As the ensemble nature of this album would lead you to believe, there’s a kind of crazy quilt aesthetic at work here. While the album isn’t necessarily coherent, the songs live comfortably with each other. The collaboration is really successful; it makes sense, even when they jump from Texas twang to folk to more straight-up indie rock. The subdued rock-guitar work of "Charley’s Girl" is a really cool backdrop to the full vocal chorus of "la la las"...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Kelly Hogan / Because it Feel Good / Bloodshot Because It Feel Good has more of a central theme than last year's Beneath the Country Underdog. It's obvious when you look at the song titles; tunes like "Strayed", "Please Don't Leave Me Lonely" and "Living Without You" betray a predilection for the darker side of love, in all its many guises. There are a few boisterous, rocking numbers, but the album's overall mood is surprisingly solemn -- morbid, even, in a David Lynchy sort of way...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Thalia Zedek / Been Here And Gone / Matador To be honest, I was never a fan of any of Zedek's former bands -- they were always just a bit too sludgy and murky for me to appreciate. However, in this new context, stripped of sonic debris, Zedek's songwriting and arranging skills reveal themselves to be extremely impressive. The album draws many cues from Leonard Cohen; in addition to covering one of his songs ("Dance Me to the End of Love"), she also models a song after one of his...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Beltline / The Things You Do At Four AM / Jealous Butcher Beltline's sort of music is the small, intimate type that gets you down. It works best when you're listening during one of those post-midnight hours, and you're depressed for some stupid reason. While a good bit of the music is actually upbeat, the lyrics are intimate and sometimes quite self-centered. It all comes down to what type of person you are; do you see spending twelve bucks for a depressing album as paying to be down, or as finding art that you can relate to...more»
		Sam Bisbee / Vehicle / Terrible The fourteen tracks on Vehicle yield hits and misses. Some of Bisbee's compositions come off as contrived and jejune -- but given time, he more than makes up for them. Similes and metaphors make up the majority of his lyrical purview; take the first track, "Miracle Car": "You're a slasher film you terrify/ you're a love story; you death-defy/ you're a shoot-em-up; you're a cold drive-by." Bisbee continues in this vein throughout the album, obsessing about his innocently seductive muse...more»
		The Boys' Star Library / If I Was Born A Girl / Bumblebear Here, in the course of sixteen songs and sixty minutes, the band and some important friends (like Josh Siegel and Will Quinnell) ask a metaphorical question through each pop song. Among them: what if believing in love is unavoidable? What if death is not your enemy? What if you were not born the person you are today? The latter question is addressed in "Nancy". Lyrically, it approaches the metaphysical question quite lightly and borders on becoming "condensed twee"...more»
		The Damned / Grave Disorder / Nitro As the thirteen tracks on Grave Disorder demonstrate, the Damned share several traits with XTC: wry lyrics, fervent Britishness and musical variety that now ranges from prog-goth and arty ballads to political- and punk-pop workouts ("Neverland", "Song.Com", "W") that are as energetic as their early work. The Damned are effortlessly catchy, and have a way of making very complicated compositions (like "Amen", "Absinthe" and "Beauty of the Beast") sound like simple, good-natured fun...more»
		Discord Aggregate / The Texture of the Sky / Discord Aggregate The Discord Aggregate collective -- S. B. Reda, Pamela Zero and A. Molotkov -- offers its own descriptions of The Texture of the Sky. On the disc's back cover, they call it "over 60 minutes of joyful tension." This seems true enough, if overly succinct. The Texture of the Sky is definitely full of, and the source of, tension (though, as my wife's response to the disc makes clear, not all of it is necessarily joyful). The inner sleeve offers a little more detail, describing The Texture of the Sky as "...an interactive novel in which you are the main character"...more»
		The Epidemic / I am Compltely Oprationa l / Ache Andy Dixon is the sole member of The Epidemic's staff. He occasionally sighs along with the music in a high tenor as he noodles about with the synth, strums guitar and twiddles knobs on his computer programs. The title isn't just a gimmick, either: the music will be playing, and the listener happily bopping along, when the tune will stop and start up again with odd gaps. You'll think your CD is scratched, or that your player is crusty with the ramen you had for lunch...but nope, these gaps are meant to be there...more»
		Davíd Garza / Overdub / Lava/Atlantic Overdub is tremendously good -- at times great -- but it's important to recognize there are a few weaknesses. Garza, in all likelihood, won't be remembered in rock history as a great innovator, despite the fact that some writers have ranked him alongside Prince and David Bowie. Nor can anything on this album justifiably be compared to Jeff Buckley at his most ethereal, nor the epic grandeur of Led Zeppelin, nor the genius of Jimi Hendrix. This is what Overdub is not...more»
		Les Petits Sous / Le Projet de John Hughes / Self-Released Almost immediately after hearing the marvelous numbers on Le Projet de John Hughes, you'll come to the modest and inarguable realization that someone knows how to get it right. This batch of New York City friends got together a few months back and penned a slew of tunes -- ingenious bursts that balance quirky chords with ethereal ambiance, all the while quietly masking a concentrated pop core. Tempting vocals and sparse guitars are predicated on the less-is-more school of rockdom...more»
		Metrovavan / Retrofitting / Darla "Super Shadows", Retrofitting's opener, drops a synth-driven melody that slides concomitant to an archaic, machine-powered rhythm -- effectively slanting the album on a retro-Virgin Suicides tilt. On "I'm Glad I'm Not A Spaceman", the band favors a more leisurely stride; at best a faltering warble, Scott Twynholm's voice carries the tune, lightly chanting poignancies as itinerant space flourishes saunter through the melody...more»
		ONQ / The Supreme Weight / OuZel Luca Galuppini has put in his time, making the rounds as both a solo artist and band member working in a variety of styles. (Given The Supreme Weight's folk-rock aspects, the best line in the artist bio has to be, "1994: I used to play in a Carcass-inspired grindcore act called Necrobestiality...") Vocals, guitar and synths are handled here by Galuppini, while OuZel Records head Mauro Costagli reinforces this one man band with accordia and intricate, jazz-influenced drumming, and Valerio Sartori plays clarinet on two tracks...more»
		Pram / Somniloquy / Merge The prize for "most notable" remix is shared by Plone's re-working of "Bewitched", with its perky beats and surf guitar sound, and Andy Votel's funk-like rethink of "The Last Astronaut". Plone and Votel, while obviously gleaning inspiration from the same pool as Pram, offer the most notable departure from the original tracks, and for that reason their work stands out among the five remixes included here. Sir Real Mix's reinterpretation of "A Million Bubbles" should also be noted...more»
		Schlammpeitziger / Collected Simple Songs of my Temporary Past / Sonig/Thrill Jockey Like most electro-people these days, Jo Zimmermann seems to have his digits in a number of different pies; he's been known to work with other Cologne-based artists, notably Mouse On Mars' Jan St. Werner. Schlammpeitziger, however, is a solo project for which fish-obsessed Zimmermann records at home, accompanied only by his aquatic friends. Collected Simple Songs of my Temporary Past is a compilation of Zimmermann's tracks released on various German labels since the early 1990s...more»
		Michael J. Sheehy / Ill-Gotten Gains / Beggars Banquet Sheehy's mention of Bill Hicks on the opener, "Sweet Blue Gene", is a good indicator as to where this album is aimed. From being a "virus with shoes" on down, each track contains stories of human failings and misery. From boxers paid to take dives to love-affairs that self-destruct, the singer's focus is on the seedier side of life, though it's wrapped in such a tremulous, reverb-drenched sound that it's a view you'll be willing to share...more»
		Slumber Party / Psychedelicate / Kill Rock Stars Psychedelicate opens, fittingly, with the hiss of an amp with its reverb cranked to the max -- a foretaste of the reverb-drenched sound that turns this album into a fragrant cloud. Slowly a clean, muted guitar plucks away chords, while another guitar enters a jerky, simple melody. Finally, Alicia Berg’s vocals enter, singing "There’s a bag of spiders behind my ear / One falls out for every year / When it’s closing time / And the young align / They drink my tears / And everything’s fine," leaving us no doubt that we’ve entered a fairy tale...more»
		Son, Ambulance / Euphemystic / Saddle Creek The basis of the band's sound seems to be the singer-songwriter ideal. You often catch snippets of James Taylorish confessionals and Simon and Garfunkel harmonies as the disc progresses. The twist is that these guys are primarily interested in confounding your expectations for that sound. Not only the tempo and volume, but the tone and instrumentation of many of these songs reverses on a dime. It's often exhilarating...more»