#2949 The Nice Boys - The Nice Boys

A thoroughly delightful slice of power-pop, delivering all the sunny, glammy//moddy hooks that the cover art promises. Fans of Big Star, Thin Lizzy, and Buzzcocks will find a lot to like. That it represents a return to music for the last member of The Exploding Hearts is a bittersweet bonus 4/5

#2948 Tierra Whack - Whack World

Leave the visual component out of it - a few cool shots aside it mostly feels too-literal and lazily whimsical, like the worst Gondry. Plus the whole-album-video and super-short-song-album gimmicks kinda cancel eachother out.

On its own though, the super-short-song thing feels less like a gimmick. Underground excursions like the Punch Line and Bee Thousand were exercises in no-fat hookcrafting, but the commitment to one minute onthedot inspires some unique songwriting and sets up a hypnotic rhythm (with 100x the actual listenability of The Commercial Album).

Every song feels unrushed, and Whack still finds time for intros, bridges, choruses, repetition // change -- everything you expect from pop songs. There's demarcation between tracks, but flow across the album too;  mundane, soft-focus vignettes with magic in the corners, with the loose positivity that evokes Chicago more than Philadelphia. A curious, unique little record, as this wave of hip hop drifts, like rock before it, further into arty experimentation 4/5

#2947 Rusko - Songs

Dubstep from before it became mana for the axe body spray contingent, when there was some actual dub influence to give it atmosphere. Big warm synths and spatters of breakbeat keep you on your toes, a hazy, disorienting listen that doesn't lean on drops for excitement 3.5/5

#2946 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs

rock's last stand is the motirik beat. it keeps going cause it doesn't care. because your head will move because humans are built to anticipate and to love the of resolution of that anticipation. The motorik knows you're too old to dance, and it keeps your heart pumping. And RBCF wants you to keep going, wants to keep you stepping through this clean dystopia, chiming perfectly to that clip that you lean into, cause its better to fall forward than back, so here's your beat 4/5

#2945 Toby Tantrum - Community for Those That Can Afford It

Listen / buy here!

That first track's what it's all about. Toby gets it - cutting to a local problem with biting wit, with ruthless efficiency, dodging cliches left and right. Earn that LocalMusicBoston tag. Don't Turn Around keeps the streak with a Kinksian, regretful look back over the shoulder. There's only 2 songs worth of music here though. The last couple tracks sound like lazy studio fuckaround throwaways -- surely there's something better in the clip? 3.5/5

#2944 The King Khan and BBQ Show - The King Khan and BBQ Show

KK+BBQ got rock and roll from the beginning. Doo-wop's simplest longings loaded into garagey rockets and delivered to your Exploding Heart. A simple sentiment shredded and blasted into your chest by someone who knows how to sharpen a hook and aim 4/5

#2943 The King Khan and BBQ Show - Invisible Girl

Weren't things simpler, back then? Girl group beats, doowop swing, rockabilly slumming it all night long. KK+BBQ bring an insidiously filthy smirk and a heaping pile of effortless hooks into the 21st century. The uneasy thrill of what started off such good clean fun -- in a little over your head. Punk the long way around. Woozy boozy. Let's rock. An intoxicatingly good time, everything rock and roll should be, bound to be stuck in your head for days, like it or not 4.5/5

#2942 The Tandoori Knights - Curry Up It's The Tandoori Knights

A cartoonishly Indian rockabilly album, a goofy pisstake that's...actually a lot of fun. Unwestern tones and King Khan's general madness compliment Bloodshot Bill's rocksolid romp and surfy swerves.

Fuck Dick Clark! He won't let Tandoori play on the bandstand!

Is all you need to know. And there's a love song about a bed of nails and falling into your lover's many arms. And a song just called Brown Trash. Presumed dumbfuck stoner idea is actually pretty fresh 4/5

#2941 Bloodshot Bill - Guitar Boy

Not one detail reveals this as anything other than a long-lost rockabilly record. The production's as flayed as it comes, all rattling upright strings, tube amp buzz, yelped breath on the mic. Hard to say if its a sincere limitation or gimmick or just the depth of Bill's devotion to the era. He's a bud of the puckish King Khan (stay tuned) -- anything seems possible.

As rockabilly goes, it's not going to dethrone the greats, but its a proper unhinged rollick, more Gene Vincent than Elvis (that's good) 3.5/5

#2940 Shannon Shaw - Shannon in Nashville

Shaw's got a good voice, but Dan Auerbach's obsessed with it, and it kills the record. He puts her vocals up at the penthouse, propped on pillowey strings and borrowed Dangermouse beats, bathing in its own endless reverb. But there's hardly any songs to speak of - no instrument dares show any initiative, and none of the sentiment's worth writing home about. Just you and Shannon in a hall of mirrors 3/5

#2939 Ruler - Winning Star Champion

When this first spun up I thought: I'll bet there's gonna be at least one good road-trip-with-Jo song on here. I was right! (title track, Cars and Houses too)

Ruler's latest is emo-tinged power-pop, all hopeful yelps against the storm of onrushing adulthood. Hooky, with enough little surprises to keep you bopping for its half hour 3.5/5

#2938a Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy (Mirror to Mirror)

Car Seat Headrest's long lost cult album recently got re-recorded - mostly note for note, with some rethinkings of the spoken word space-fillers. It's a messy record in either form, calling to mind, strangely specifically, It Was Hot We Stayed in the Water, in its particular rejection of sensible pacing in the name of deeply felt emotions beyond expression in standard forms.

Some of it's stunning. My Boys is a a soaring classic, Stop Smoking's a dagger of simplicity, and Cute Thing's a ripper you'd never be sorry to hear live. The 16-minute Famous Prophets is rewarding in the buildup and the payoff.

But man it's a long, weird meander (the other long song, Beach Life-In-Death is a mess, a disjointed pile of half-baked fragments). Face to Face (2018) cuts some of the most embarrassing spoken word bits, but those were arguably, in their own uncomfortable way, some of Mirror to Mirror's  (2011) highlights. The remake's production's undeniably a better listen, and I don't know that I'd make it through the original again -- but if I had to pick one to exist, I'd let Mirror to Mirror's bizarro boldness live forever. A strange project from a brilliant kid//adult, a stark illustration of how you can't have it both ways when it comes to sincerity 4/5

#2938 Alkaloid - Liquid Anatomy

Dense, overwhelming metal that's down with goblin voice AND proggy frippery. The combination's too goofy to take seriously and too numbing to enjoy frivolously 2.5/5