Quick comments on some recent CD purchases:

• Room on Fire, the Strokes. You know, I have no problem with the basic idea of the back-to-basics neo-garage thing, but if you're going to be hailed as the new saviors of Rock, you should at least sound like you care. It's not a bad record, really, but like their first one, it's weirdly half-assed, like they can't be bothered to invest much emotion in the work, which makes it hard for me to really get into it. Honestly, if you're too jaded to enjoy being a rock star, you're just too jaded to live.

• Rooney, Rooney. If you've ever found yourself saying "Wow, I really like Weezer's 'Green Album'-- if only it were more than half an hour long," you should go buy this record. It's almost forty minutes long.

• Blackberry Belle the Twilight Singers. As a big fan of the Afghan Whigs, I bought Greg Dulli's first post-Whigs album (Twilight by the Twilight Singers) immediately, and was underwhelmed. It's basically an entire album full of the mopey tracks that they used to pad Whigs records out with. This one is much better-- "Teenage Wristband" is a great tune.

• Blink-182, Blink-182. What's up with the self-titled records, anyway? Great moments in liner notes: "Tom and I went into two different rooms, and he wrote the verses, and I wrote the choruses, without discussing the subject ahead of time. It turns out we both wrote about sex." What are the odds?

• Orange Rhyming Dictionary, Jets to Brazil. Bought after numerous enthusiastic recommendations from Nathan Lundblad. "Conrad" is one of the most ear-wormy depressing songs you'd ever want to hear.

• Tell Balgeary, Balgury is Dead, Ted Leo. The title probably means something, and might explain some more about the title track, which is very good. It's an EP, so it was cheap, and I've heard his other recent album (from which the title track is taken) praised highly, so I figured I'd check this out. It's decent, and I'll probably pick up the full album the next time I'm in a record store.