5-second Reviews: Creepy, Omnipresent Fúwá Edition
Foxboro Hot Tubs—Stop, Drop and Roll !!!: Green Day (incognito) show their debt to Nuggets-style 60’s garage rock. Fans only, but this is actually better than several of the legit GD albums. Key tracks: Dark Side of Night; Ruby Room.
Aimee Mann—@#&*%! Smilers: Yeah, I get the criticism that her albums are beginning to sound “samey.” Don’t care. She’s still one of the two or three top pop tunesmiths in the biz. Key tracks: Freeway; 31 Today.
Mudcrutch—Mudcrutch: Best Tom Petty album in many a year. If you know the lyrics to “Last Dance with Mary Jane,” you’ll want to give it a listen; otherwise, you’re likely to shrug your shoulders. Key tracks: Shady Grove; Crystal River.
Elvis Costello & the Imposters—Momofuku: Elvis, you were my first college crush. Imperial Bedroom forever changed the way I 
listen to music. But even with one of your (increasingly rare) raawk albums, the thrill is gone, the music muddy, the lyrics (painfully) overwritten. Pump it up until you can feel it / Pump it up when you don’t really need it. Otherwise, don’t even bother. Key tracks: Flutter & Wow; Go Away.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy—The Letting Go: Inspired by a review of this guy’s latest to investigate BPB’s back catalogue. This is the gem, from 2006. Ethereal Celtic-tinged backing vocals by Dawn McCarthy provide lovely counterpoint to Will Oldham’s meditative tales of loves lost and lorn. Key tracks: No Bad News; Then the Letting Go
Fleet Foxes—Fleet Foxes: The best fake-Decembrists album I’ve ever heard. This may sound slightly like faint praise, but I currently can’t get “Your Protector” out of my head, and “Blue Ridge Mountains” and “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” are nearly as good. Recommended.
The Old 97’s—Blame It on Gravity: The Old 97’s are one of those bands where, really, you only need one album, max. Doesn’t matter so much which one. But this isn’t the one I’d choose, by a long shot. Key tracks: The Color of a Lonely Heart; Dance With Me.
Hòuhǎidàshāyú—后悔大鲨鱼 / Proximity Butterfly—The Antikythera Mechanism: Not-particularly-inspiring further investigations into Chinese rock. Queen Sea Big Shark sound like they’re trying to be the surf-rock soundtrack to a Chinese Quentin Tarantino film: an intriguing project, potentially, but—call me loopy—if you’re not even remotely fluent in English mightn’t it be better to sing in Mandarin? Proximity Butterfly (a truly random purchase) are a bunch of lǎowài living in Chengdu that sound like the unholy love child of Perry Farrell and Peter Gabriel. Not nearly as terrible as you’d expect…but nothing anybody not dating one of the band members actually needs to hear either. Great album name and cover art, though.
