Quick comments on a handful of the CD's I've been listening to while undoing the poor aesthetic choices of our new house's previous owners:

• Bowling for Soup, Drunk Enough to Dance. There's probably a specific term for the sort of loud and slightly juvenile songs about relationships that these guys do, but I'm not up on power-pop subcultures at the moment. I picked this up because the single "The Girl All the Bad Guys Want" is the sort of great high-school loser song that I really enjoy. I particularly like the lyric "She broke my heart, I wanna be sedated/ All I wanted was to see her naked," for its implication that this was a perfectly reasonable hope cruelly denied... Happily, the rest of the album is good, too.

• OK Go, OK Go. More obnoxious power pop, with more synthesizers than have been cool since 1986 or so. More sneering than plaintive, but still a fun record.

• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Last DJ. Tom Petty is pissed off at how much the music business, and specifically commercial radio sucks these days. So am I, and there's plenty to be pissed about. Unfortunately, it doesn't make for a great concept album. "Have Love, Will Travel" is a very good song, and there are a couple of other good points, but on the whole, it's too strident to be a great record.

• The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battle the Pink Robots. These guys are just weird enough to make the concept album thing work. Insofar as this is a concept album, anyway. Actually, I'm not sure what the hell it's about, but it's great, in a slightly trippy, ear-wormy sort of way. Also, "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" is a great song title. Another disc that Kate doesn't like, because just speaking any of the lyrics to "Do You Realize??" is enough to get the song stuck in her head.
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Article Author: Chad Orzel

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