Scandinavian Leather, the denim Norsemen’s fifth album, was without a doubt their most eagerly anticipated. Having split up in bizarre fashion not long after the milestone that was Apocalypse Dudes, the band rose victoriously with the 2002 Res-Erection Tour and found that it had gained a substantial, insanely dedicated international fan base — the Turbojugend. They were now attracting broad attention for the first time in their lengthy career.Scandinavian Leather continues very much in the same vein as Dudes, albeit with touches of added sophistication. The songs are still delightfully anthemic and the ever-clever lyrics revolve around themes such as copulation, violence, and outsiderness. Although you can hear some fairly camp, ’80s metal-esque vocal capers from Hank von Helvete, it’s mainly the production, courtesy of guitar god Euroboy, that sets this album apart from its predecessors. The extensive use of multi-layered backing vocals combined with altogether more nuanced arrangements (strings, acoustic guitars etc.) may strip it of some of the immediacy found on Apocalypse Dudes and take Turbonegro in a more commercial direction. On the other hand, though, songs such as “Turbonegro Must Be Destroyed” and “Le Saboteur” rock as ferociously as anything they’ve ever done.”Sell Your Body (To the Night)” cleverly lifts its main riff from the Stooges’ “Penetration” and marries it with Kiss-like choruses made for filling stadiums. “Locked Down” and “Remain Untamed” are glorious outsider hymns, while first single “F**k the World (F.T.W.)” is a stomping, gigantic beast, growing better and better with each listen. These songs, along with a few more, are bona fide Turbo classics; however, it must be said that Scandinavian Leather lacks some of the consistency and rawness that made Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes instant classics. Still, the thrills and good moments are frequent enough to make this a great, pure rock & roll album.

Tracklisting
1. Blizzard Of Flames, The
2. Wipe It Til It Bleeds
3. Gimme Some
4. Turbonegro Must Be Destroyed
5. Sell Your Body (To The Night)
6. Remain Untamed
7. Train Of Flesh
8. F**k The World
9. Locked Down
10. I Want It All
11. Drenched In Blood (D.I.B.)
12. Le Saboteur
13. Ride With Us

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (6/12/03, p.94) – 3 stars out of 5 – “…Dark, thrashing punk rock, spiked with arena-metal choruses and button-pushing lyrics destined to be misunderstood by anyone who can’t take a joke…”

Uncut (6/03, p.119) – 4 stars out of 5 – “…The kind of rock hard sofa you’ll want to crawl all over….Ice cool and brilliant…”

Calexico streamlined its eclectic sound a bit on this 2003 release, adding a pop sensibility to the band’s already-exciting mixture of Latin-tinged Southwestern twang and jazzy, atmospheric sophistication. Most notably, FEAST OF WIRE features more of multi-instrumentalist Joey Burns’s voice (Burns co-founded the band along with drummer John Convertino). On “Quattro (World Drifts In),” which combines Burns’s under-the-radar singing with a guitar-driven song structure, Calexico sounds like it might even sneak onto mainstream FM radio. But the breezy accessibility is deceptive, because, over the course of FEAST, the ensemble is remarkably experimental and adventurous.

The giddy-up rhythms of “Close Behind,” complete with accordion, sweeping strings, and lap steel, prove the band’s mastery at animating dusty, sun-baked motifs that sound like alternate soundtracks to HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER. The stately classicism of the piano-and-strings duet “The Book and the Canal” and the electronica-influenced “Attack El Robot! Attack!” proves the group capable of throwing out curveballs. Even when Calexico traffics in more traditional songcraft (”Not Even Stevie Nicks…”), its quirky approach keeps its indie credibility unassailable. FEAST OF WIRE is accomplished, listener-friendly experimentalism of the first order.

Tracklisting
1. Sunken Waltz
2. Quattro (World Drifts In)
3. Stucco
4. Black Earth
5. Pepita
6. Not Even Stevie Nicks
7. Close Behind
8. Woven Birds
9. The Book And The Canal
10. Attack El Robot! Attack!
11. Across The Wire
12. Dub Latina
13. Guero Canelo
14. Whipping Horse’s Eyes
15. Crumble
16. No Doze

Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly (3/14/03, p.66) – “…These country-rock abstractionists make songs full of Sergio Leone set pieces and Mexicali blues, with random bursts of jazz swagger…and pop bliss…” – Rating: B+

Q (01/01/04, p.75) – Ranked #48 in Q’s “The 50 Best Albums of 2003″ – “This is another diverse collection, with Latin shuffles, slow waltzes and would-be spaghetti western soundtracks all queuing up for a turn in the spotlight.”

Uncut (01/04, pp.84-7) – Ranked #49 in Uncut’s “Albums Of The Year 2003″

Uncut (3/03, p.98) – 4 stars out of 5 – “…Calexico transports you to a place where the sun’s hot enough to bake bricks and there are always mangy dogs in the shade….Saddle up, it’s showtime…”

Magnet (4/03, p.85) – “…It’s all drunkenly cinematic, as prickly as cactus and smart as hell, a fly-splattered vista of tumbling tumbleweeds and wide-open spaces…”

The Wire (2/03, p.59) – “…They create a space for the listener to appreciate the music’s constituent parts at the same time as measuring its overall impact….Their instrumentals run from the briefest of acoustic interludes to beautifully arranged soundtracks…”

Mojo (Publisher) (01/01/04, p.56) – Ranked #35 in Mojo’s “The Best of 2003″

Mojo (Publisher) (3/03, p.98) – 5 stars out of 5 – “…The music is often sensuous and sparkly….Seductive, stirring songs about crushed hope and the corruption of beauty and some of their most ambitious arrangements make this their most fully-realised and accomplished album yet…”

On THE FLYING CLUB CUP, Beirut’s highly anticipated second full-length album, youthful musical mastermind Zach Condon outshines his lauded debut, GULAG ORKESTAR, by presenting elegant and dramatic songs that seem more at home in their vintage European accoutrements. While some tunes sound straight out of Yann Tiersen’s AMELIE soundtrack, in particular the swaying “Forks and Knives (La Fete),” others carry a dramatic flair that nods to fellow indie-pop wunderkind Patrick Wolf, most notably the urgent “Guyamas Sonora.”

Despite these and other comparisons (Calexico, Magnetic Fields, etc.), however, Condon manages to make CUP’s swooning Francophilia both unique and timeless, burying his New Mexico roots so deep it would seem that he has to be from somewhere in the Old World. Although the record generally lacks snappy singles, the exception being the dynamic “Nantes,” it works remarkably well as a whole, resulting in an engaging and enveloping listening experience that giddily soars over a mythical Europa.

Tracklisting
1. A Call To Arms
2. Nantes
3. A Sunday Smile
4. Guyamas Sonora
5. La Banlieu
6. Cliquot
7. The Penalty
8. Forks And Knives (La Fête)
9. In The Mausoleum
10. Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route)
11. Cherbourg
12. St. Appollonia
13. The Flying Club Cup

Professional Reviews
Spin (p.114) – 3.5 stars out of 5 — “[A]n unironic homage to France, intending to evoke a different city on each song….It adds up to great fun…”

Uncut (p.104) – 4 stars out of 5 — “Condon coos these heart-broken serenades and intoxicated ballads in a liquid vibrato moan somewhere between Thom Yorke and Antony Hegarty.”

Alternative Press (p.130) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[Condon's] vocals are more pronounced when he’s joined by a chorus of fellow believers, making this band of sonic gypsies seem communal rather than individual…”

Magnet (p.91) – “The album serves as a musical travelogue through various French cities and deals with the country’s rich tradition of music, fashion and culture…..Stunning.”

CMJ (p.10) – “Condon is freed up to write some of his best melodies yet — like the wine-stained waltz ‘Forks And Knives’ — and his newly mature, melodramatic croon is in fine form throughout.”

Q (Magazine) (p.80) – Ranked #26 in Q’s “The 50 Best Albums Of 2007.”

For its sophomore outing on the Bella Union record label (founded by Simon Raymonde, formerly of the Cocteau Twins), the Texas-based ensemble Midlake presents a set of lo-fi, 1970s-pop-inspired indie-rock, as best exemplified by “Roscoe,” a track that mixes Fleetwood Mac tunefulness with a charming, off-beat sonic aesthetic. With Grandaddy reportedly breaking up around the time of this 2006 album, Midlake seems like the ideal act to continue to bear its torch.

Tracklisting
1. Roscoe
2. Bandits
3. Head Home
4. Van Occupanther
5. Young Bride
6. Branches
7. In This Camp
8. We Gathered Here In Spring
9. It Covers The Hillsides
10. Chasing After Deer
11. You Never Arrived

Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly (p.68) – “It takes a confident band to resurrect the soft-rock sound of Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, but that’s exactly what this Denton, Tex., quintet does on its sophomore album.” — Grade: B+

Q (p.117) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[F]rontman Tim Smith has discovered ’70s Americana, and has now ladled his love of the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac all over this second album.”

Q (p.124) – Ranked #21 in Q Magazine’s “100 Greatest Albums of 2006″ — “Mystical, hallucinatory and deeply melodic…”

Alternative Press (p.214) – “Pastoral flutes and acoustic guitars coexist peacefully with jagged electro riffs, creating rustic tunes that somehow avoid feeling like empty exercises in nostalgia.”

Magnet (p.98) – “[I]t all makes cripplingly lovely sense, right down to the windy, Neil Young-like guitar solos.”

CMJ (p.4) – “[The] quintet channels moody, transatlantic ’60s psych-pop, mid-’70s SoCal country rock and a bit of ’80s-era 4AD wistfulness.”

Mojo (Publisher) (p.106) – 4 stars out of 5 — “All exquisitely sung and played….We’re dealing with an invigorating, many-faceted work of diverse instrumentation and durability.”

On its first studio album since 2003’s QUEBEC, the ever-mischievous Pennsylvania-based weirdos Ween unveil another set of skewed tunes that have seemingly been plucked from some strange Willy Wonka-like realm. After the willfully cheesy horn-led intro of “Fiesta,” LA CUCARACHA drifts into the ether with the fantasy-themed “Blue Balloon,” which, along with the likeminded “Spirit Walker,” features the duo’s signature tweaked vocals and quirky arrangements. Elsewhere Dean and Gene Ween mix things up with the twangy “Learnin’ to Love” and the snotty punk-pop ditty “Shamemaker,” capping things off with the slinky Bowie-like “Your Party,” a track that boasts sax master David Sanborn. Largely staying within the same brightly colored palette as QUEBEC, LA CUCARACHA is a fine addition to Ween’s gleefully bizarre catalogue.

Track Listing
1. Fiesta
2. Blue Balloon
3. Friends
4. Object
5. Learnin To Love
6. With My Own Bare Hands
7. The Fruit Man
8. Spirit Walker
9. Shamemaker
10. Sweetheart
11. Lullaby
12. Woman & Man
13. Your Party

Professional Reviews
Uncut (p.119) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[With] hillbilly, vague psychedelia and house. ‘Object’ is a highlight, as is the lovely ‘Sweetheart In The Summer’…”

Mojo (Publisher) (p.99) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[S]imply let LA CUCARACHA happen and enjoy how much Gene and Dean toy with and transgress musical forms while still playing them to a high degree of invention, proficiency and sincerity.”

Blender (Magazine) (p.154) – 3.5 stars out of 5 — “When it comes to creating nuanced and irreverent, yet oddly touching pop and rock simulacra, no one really touches [them]…”

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s third album, HOWL, was a near-total reinvention of the Los Angeles-based trio’s sound, introducing previously unknown folk and country influences. Although the experiment was artistically successful, the band completely abandoned it on their fourth album, BABY 81, in favor of a return to their original, far more aggressive sound as heard on their self-titled debut and second album (TAKE THEM ON, ON YOUR OWN). BABY 81 reiterates all of BRMC’s original influences, primarily the Jesus and Mary Chain’s mix of ear-piercing feedback and pop hooks and My Bloody Valentine’s love of massed guitar drones for their own sake. These combine with co-leaders Peter Hayes and Robert Turner’s familiar vocal style on songs as diverse as the poppy first single, “Weapon of Choice,” and the Sonic Youth style nine-minute noise-rock epic, “American X.” Other highlights include the strutting opening track, “Took Out a Loan,” and the Stooges-like sleaze of “Berlin.”

Tracklisting
1. Took Out A Loan
2. Berlin
3. Weapon Of Choice
4. Window
5. Cold Wind
6. Not What You Wanted
7. 666 Conducer
8. All You Do Is Talk
9. Lien On Your Dreams
10. Need Some Air
11. Killing The Light
12. American X
13. Am I Only

Professional Reviews
Spin (p.84) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[A] recent attraction to Britpop yields expertly crafted songs like the angry, political ‘Weapon of Choice’ and the brooding crooner ‘Window.’”

Alternative Press (p.156) – 4 stars out of 5 — “The bulk of BABY 81 draws from the dark underbelly of the Woodstock generation…”

Magnet (p.90) – “BABY 81 finds BRMC back in control of the street corner, cigarette squints and rock ‘n’ roll swagger intact.”

No Depression (p.97) – “BABY 81 finds BRMC further refining their distinctive, invigorating blend of swirling, fuzzed-out guitar squall and stripped-down bluesy soul.”

The debut album from Australian group the Panics garnered them an ARIA (an Australian equivalent to the Grammy) for best adult contemporary album for a reason. The band constantly moves through new territories, defying a simple definition or a simple parallel to another band. However, they do so while maintaining an excellent, intriguing sound. Frontman Joe Laffer gives a husky delivery that swoons just a bit here and there over the top of a layer of guitar and drums, an occasional bit of keyboard inflection, and depending on the song, a bit of classic Motown-style strings (occasionally replaced by a synth version nostalgic for the Motown sound). The album opens with perhaps the most Motown-heavy piece, handclaps and strings triumphantly announcing the group’s entrance. The strings are a little less Motown and a little more Coldplay in “Ruins,” and bent a little toward Asian pop in “Creaks.” Still, the band itself provides a steady, strong backing, and Laffer provides almost a narrative-style delivery, throaty in its timbre, breathy even. The band tells their stories, touching on the grey areas of pop, alluding to U2 in the rhythm guitar for a moment in “Live Without.” They touch on darker beach songs in “Confess,” they evoke contemporary Bob Dylan recordings in “Sundowner,” with an almost weary, dim delivery but a grandiose chorus movement. The album defies a clear definition other than “adult contemporary,” but it’s attractive, it’s catchy, and it’s exploratory all at once. Definitely worth a spin or two.

Tracklisting
1. Get Us Home
2. Ruins
3. Creaks
4. Don’t Fight It
5. Feeling Is Gone
6. Cruel Guards
7. Live Without
8. Something In The Garden
9. I Confess
10. Sundowner

Throughout their career, and especially since they were forever enshrined as the favorite band of sardonic emo kid Seth Cohen on television’s THE OC, Death Cab For Cutie have always been known as indie rock’s most famous sensitive guys. Even at their most abrasive on previous albums like PLANS and WE HAVE THE FACTS AND WE’RE VOTING YES, Ben Gibbard and crew have always had an inherent gentleness along with the low-key pop sensibility that allowed them to make the jump from the indie fringe to major-label stardom. The ambitious, experimental NARROW STAIRS is Death Cab For Cutie’s unexpectedly edgy response to any preconceptions, a wide-ranging, noisy and exciting album that sounds little like anything they’ve done before. From the epic-length first single. “I Will Possess Your Heart.” through the spacy, almost psychedelic “Pity and Fear” and the noise-riddled “Your New Twin Sized Bed,” NARROW STAIRS is Death Cab For Cutie’s equivalent to Radiohead’s KID A, a bracingly ambitious attempt to counter expectations as their stardom ascends.

Tracklisting
1. Bixby Canyon Bridge
2. I Will Possess Your Heart
3. No Sunlight
4. Cath…
5. Talking Bird
6. You Can Do Better Than Me
7. Grapevine Fires
8. Your New Twin Sized Bed
9. Long Division
10. Pity And Fear
11. The Ice Is Getting Thinner

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.66) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[T]he album is as dark as anything the band has done….[T]he most indelible moment is ‘Grapevine Fires,’ a minor-key processional framed by churchy organ and electric piano.”

Spin (p.48) – Ranked #25 in Spin’s “40 Best Albums Of 2008″ — “Every album gets slightly more refined, with Ben Gibbard and Co. stretching their sound…”

Entertainment Weekly (p.121) – “Death Cab’s ebullience makes this a redemptive work about sadness. And there’s nothing NARROW-minded about that.” — Grade: B

Alternative Press (p.125) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[T]hey still contribute stand-alone pop gems….Their sound is timeless. ‘Your New Twin Sized Bed’ is especially a stand-out, with a midtempo, acoustic-driven melody…”

Kerrang (Magazine) (p.47) – “Spacious, ambitious and bolder than ever, DCFC have struck gold once more. Magic.”

Q (Magazine) (p.138) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[T]hey’ve shaken things up, most headspinningly with the eight-minute slab of instrumental loveliness ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’…”

THE STAND INS is a sequel to 2007’s THE STAGE NAMES, the second half of a double album’s worth of songs completed by singer-songwriter Will Sheff prior to the first album’s release. The songs continue with the lyrical themes and obsessions of THE STAGE NAMES, filled with references to famous bands, authors, films, TV shows, and other bits of high and low culture set to Sheff’s moody, guitar-based indie rock tunes. Even the cover art of the two albums links together to form a single image, although both in artwork and in its compelling songs, THE STAND INS also stands alone as a complete work in itself.

Tracklisting
1. Stand Ins, Pt. 1
2. Lost Coastlines
3. Singer Songwriter
4. Starry Stairs
5. Blue Tulip
6. Stand Ins, Pt. 2
7. Pop Lie
8. On Tour with Zykos
9. Calling and Not Calling My Ex
10. Stand Ins, Pt. 3
11. Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.113) – 3 stars out of 5 — “‘Lost Coastlines trips along on a sprightly Motown groove. ‘Starry Stairs’ is a Smiths ringer punched up with Stax/Volt horn charts.”

Spin (p.128) – 4 stars out of 5 — “THE STAND INS is packed with sprawling narratives and precarious guitars….Sheff makes even the most complicated sentiments feel like an invitation to raise your fist.”

Spin (p.49) – Ranked #19 in Spin’s “40 Best Albums Of 2008″ — “Will Sheff’s alternately biting and weary stories of doubt and falsity resonate…”

Entertainment Weekly (p.136) – “This Austin quintet follow 2007’s THE STAGE NAMES with a second tour de force about the collateral damage of fame.” — Grade: A

Alternative Press (p.152) – 4 stars out of 5 — “Paired with electric guitar and Sheff’s rich, smooth-yet-almost-breaking vocal delivery, ‘Names’ is textured and engaging.”

Magnet (p.118) – “THE STAND INS leaves the door open to its roots, from now-former member Jonathan Meilburg’s ringing banjo opening ‘Lost Coastlines’ to the appropriately HIGHWAY 61-leaning ‘Singer Songwriter’…”

Blender (Magazine) (p.82) – 4 stars out of 5 — “Lyrically, Sheff straddles the line between precious and brilliant, warbling twisty, appostive-packed tales about life on the road and crumbled relationships over cranked-up, vaguely folkish rock riffs.”

The Irish singer songwriter Fionn Regan’s debut album is a slow-burning collection of deeply personal songs that initially sound fragile, but whose imagery has a steely, almost surgical precision. Armed with only a voice and acoustic guitar on most tracks, Regan creates an intimate world paradoxically open to all, with songs like “Put a Penny in the Slot” describing a love story’s failing trajectory, and “Blackwater Child,” which has a simple, subtly gorgeous arrangement, summoning shades of Nick Drake, Donovan, and the ancient songs of their countless anonymous forebears.

Tracklisting
1. Be Good Or Be Gone
2. The Underwood Typewriter
3. Hunters Map
4. Hey Rabbit
5. Black Water Child
6. Put A Penny In The Slot
7. The Cowshed
8. Snowy Atlas Mountains
9. Noah (Ghost In A Sheet)
10. The End Of History
11. Abacus
12. Bunker Or Basement

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.84) – “[A]s loud as a heartbeat in an empty room, reverberating with the firm, fluid confrontation of his bright-whisper vocals…”