!!! Myth Takes ⁵ ITUNES MYSPACE Indie-funk collective says, “Hit me—three times!”

Enchantingly slanted dance rockers !!! (most popular pronunciation: “chk chk chk,” though any sound thrice repeated will do) correct the missteps of 2004’s uneven Louden Up Now with a pack of songs that finally do justice to their nine-minute, instant-classic single “Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story).” Instead of toe-tapping in that song’s experimental shadow, Myth Takes juxtaposes tribal post-punk (“All My Heroes Are Weirdos”)

with crooked attempts at actual pop (the incredible “Sweet Life”), giving their epic groove-riders a booty-stimulating boost. JOSH MODELL

 

Aerogramme
My Heart Has a Wish That
You Would Not Go
ITUNES MYSPACE
Volatile Glasgow rockers
get quiet, go limp
It’s a good thing that these
Scots didn’t build a huge
fan base with their first two
albums: My Heart could inspire
cries of disgust in diehards
expecting the band’s usual
moody soundscapes inter-
rupted by Pixies-ish roars.
Aerogramme’s trademark

Antibalas:
One hell of a
beer- league
softball team

loudness apparently evapo-
rated when singer Craig B suf-
fered a severe throat infection,
though that doesn’t explain
why crushing guitars were
replaced by rafter-reaching
wuss rock that might appeal to
those who find Snow Patrol a
little too heavy. Sample lyric,
from jazzy piano ballad “A
Life Worth Living”: “Oh sweet
emptiness / Fill my cup.”
JOSH MODELL

 

Air
Pocket Symphony
AMAZON MYSPACE
French electronic auteurs
scale down their sound
While retaining the meticulous
sonics of Beck/Radiohead

West Side Story
Lovelorn dudes trudge through celeb heartbreak
Good Charlotte
Good Morning Revival
ITUNES MYSPACE

Of all the punks to emerge from the Warped Tour trenches, Joel Madden always seemed like the one most likely to turn up on The Fabulous Life. He’s got the cars, the celebrity girlfriends (Hilary Duff, Nicole Richie), the Los Angeles pad. Over two platinum CDs, he’s clearly enjoyed the spoils of fame, and it’s been easy to believe that his sole worry is getting mobbed at the Beverly Center while shopping with his lady.

But on this dark fourth album, the twentysomething singer suggests that things aren’t quite as they seem. Throughout Revival, Madden challenges the vapid nature of Hollywood, a place where genuine romance doesn’t stand a chance. On the hard-charging

“Misery,” he digs at the hollow A-listers he bumps into at parties, while on “Something Else,” he wonders why he’s fallen for a material girl who insists on dining at “restaurants in Beverly Hills, where people stare.”

Good Charlotte broke from the pop-punk mold on ²⁰⁰⁴’s eclectic The Chronicles of Life and Death, and they continue to dabble in new genres here. “Where Would We Be” marks the obligatory step toward Coldplay-

Madden digs at the hollow
A-listers he meets at parties.

like balladry, and lead single “The River” indulges in some steely alt-metal riffing. There are a few clunky dance tracks, too, but it’s Madden’s search for love in the L.A. wasteland that gives Revival a certain charm. Though he never finds what he’s looking for, you’ve got to admire his willingness to try. TREVOR KELLEY

16 MARCH 2007 WWW.SPIN.COM

collaborator Nigel Godrich,
Air’s Nicolas Godin and Jean-
Benoît Dunckel eliminate
almost all percussion from their
fourth album, streamlining the
music’s already intimate Gallic
lushness and plaintive melodi-
cism. The resulting tunes
occupy a hushed netherworld
between classical minimalists
like Erik Satie and Timbaland
(without the beats). And
while the subtly unsettling
ambience lacks the fireworks
of their 1998 debut, Moon
Safari, the breathtaking peak,
“One Hell of a Party,” featuring
ex-Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker
aching bittersweetly over
traditional Japanese string
instruments (played by Godin),
menaces in miniature.
BARRY WALTERS

 

Alkaline Trio
Remains ⁵
ITUNES MYSPACE
Chicago emo elders turn a
dark eye to the past
Alkaline Trio began combining
goth and punk back when My
Chemical Romance’s Gerard
Way could barely see over the
comic-book counter. Remains
gathers tracks from various
compilations, split releases,
and soundtracks, and the diver-
sity on display proves there
has always been a daring band
under the eyeliner. With Matt

Skiba’s Moz-like black humor
setting the tone, the group
references both sides of their
influences, from speedy fist-
pumpers to moody new wave,
even turning Berlin’s “The
Metro” into a punk rager. And
“Jaked on Green Beers” is the
most fun you’ll have with a
broken heart since “I’m Not
Okay (I Promise).”
JASON BUHRMESTER

 

Antibalas
Security ⁵
ITUNES MYSPACE
Worldly New Yorkers catch
a subtly militant groove
Antibalas’ Afrobeat sound scat-
ters into so many hyphenated
juxtapositions—polyrhythmic
Afro-Cuban-funk-dub-jazz?—
that they’ve practically become
their own genre. The band’s
fourth album, recorded with
Tortoise’s John McEntire, is
surprisingly subdued, consi-
dering the current events it
attempts to address. “Filibuster
X” and “War Hero” channel the
fierce individualism of Fela Kuti
and Gil Scott-Heron, but this
dozen-strong, brass-heavy,
keyboard-intensive collective
impressively turns down the
noise with the atmospheric
“Beaten Metal” and the
mournful horns that shadow
the elegiac album closer,
“Age.” ROB O’CONNOR

“This next song
is dedicated to
Lizzie McGuire.”

FROM TOP: JASON GARNER/COURTESY EPITAPH; MARVIN SCOTT JARRETT/COURTESY MSO PR