Local H - "Hit The Skids Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Rock": "Tambourine, sludgy guitars, answering machine messages, and one crazy long song title add up to one big slab of rock!"
The Comas - "Invisible Drugs": "How does something from 2004 sound like so much great `90s indie rock? Fuzzed out guitars matched up with boy/girl vocals, simultaneously crunchy and poppy. I know it reaches backwards, timewise, but you can never go wrong with a song like this."
Elbow - "Leaders of the Free World": "Wow, this could be my new favorite Elbow track. In ways, it reminds me of Catherine Wheel, with some of the vocal parts and guitar melodies, which is obviously a huge compliment. I love short songs, but any song that hovers at the six minute mark and doesn't feel long at all is obviously a solid piece of music."
Blondie - "(Can I) Find The Right Words (To Say)": "Blondie's final album (in its original incarnation), The Hunter, is often overlooked if not outright disregarded. True, it's not as classic as the previous albums, but it still has some true gems of Blondie essence, such as this number, which could have easily appeared on Eat To The Beat. There are other great numbers on this album, in between the apparent pitfalls, such as "War Child" and "Danceway" - check it out."
Stars - "The Comeback": "Before Stars got semi-famous for their baroque pop stylings, they were a synth-rock band of the heighest rank, followers of the best New Order had to offer. They had crisp beats and clever bitterness to share, perfectly evidenced here. This song also includes one of my favorite lyrics, delivered smoothly by singer Torquil Campbell, at the peak of his frustrated artist phase: 'When pop songs end, why do I feel fear?'"
Fairly unrelated, but there's another great song, also called "The Comeback" by the Shout Out Louds, so listen to that too.
The New Pornographers - "The End Of Medicine": "I was never that impressed by the singles I heard from this album, so I never paid it much mind. Recently, I found the CD in one of my stacks and gave it a spin - and lo and behold! There were all these catchy pop nuggets that filled the record, I just never knew it before. This is one of those magically catchy numbers which probably wasn't released as a single because it didn't feature Neko Case and would not have fueled the music press' uncontrollable obsession with her."
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